Systems and methods for sharing saas content across workspace

ABSTRACT

Embodiments described include systems and methods for reusing content across a plurality of network applications. A client application establishes sessions with the network applications via an embedded browser. The client application identifies a plurality of content provided as input to each of the network applications and stores the plurality of content to storage. The client application determines a point in a first user interface of a first network application in which input from content of the plurality of content is available as input. The embedded browser provides a second user interface from which to select at least a first content of the plurality of content stored in storage from a second network application as input to the first user interface of the first network application. The embedded browser receives, as input to the first user interface, the selection via the second user interface of the first content.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of, and claims priority to andthe benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/185,961, titled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHARING SAAS CONTENT ACROSS WORKSPACE,” andfiled Nov. 9, 2018, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present application generally relates to management of applications,including but not limited to systems and methods for sharingsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) content across workspace.

BACKGROUND

As the workforce of an enterprise becomes more mobile and work undervarious conditions, an individual can use one or more client devices,including personal devices, to access network resources such as webapplications. Due to differences between the client devices and themanner in which network resources can be accessed, there are significantchallenges to the enterprise in managing access to network resources andmonitoring for potential misuse of resources.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods forsharing content from a plurality of network applications using anembedded browser. With the increasing use of the network applications(e.g., web applications and SaaS applications), the SaaS container, forexample a client application with an embedded browser, becomes thecurator of all content fragments inputted into the network applications.These content fragments can include text as well as rich content, suchas images, audio, video, attachments, etc. For example, in a case wherea SaaS application is specifically designed for documents (e.g.,ShareFile), the scope of the curation can include all content stored inthe document management SaaS application as well.

Systems and methods described herein allow content from a plurality ofnetwork applications to be reused through a client application and anembedded browser. For example, systems and methods described herein canallow content from different network applications to be curated withinthe SaaS container, intelligently organized (e.g., using predictivemachine learning), and available for reuse and reference acrossapplications. Furthermore, when multiple users working towards a jointcollaborative goal (e.g., filling a SaaS form), systems and methodsdescribed herein allow content curated and shared across each of theusers to be accessed collectively in one place so that content can bereferenced and reused for the collaborated tasks. For example, systemsand methods described herein can allow contacts, documents, files, etc.shared by each of the collaborators to be available to allcollaborators.

In one aspect, this disclosure is directed to a method for reusingcontent across a plurality of network applications. A first clientapplication establishes a plurality of sessions with a plurality ofnetwork applications via a first embedded browser within the firstclient application. The first client application identifies a pluralityof content provided as input to each of the plurality of networkapplications. The first client application stores the plurality ofcontent to storage. The first client application determines a point in afirst user interface of a first network application in which input fromcontent of the plurality of content is available as input. The firstembedded browser provides, responsive to the determination, a seconduser interface from which to select at least a first content of theplurality of content stored in storage from a second network applicationof the plurality of network applications as input to the first userinterface of the first network application. The first embedded browserreceives, as input to the first user interface of the first networkapplication, the selection via the second user interface of the firstcontent of the plurality of content stored in storage from the secondnetwork application.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of network applications isexecuted on one or more servers operated by different entities from theother network application of the plurality of network applications. Insome embodiments, the plurality of content includes one or more of thefollowing: portions of text, an attachment, an image, a file, adocument, contact information, and clipboard or copied data. In someembodiments, the first client application identifies each of theplurality of content as a user accesses and inputs content to each ofthe plurality of network applications within the embedded browser. Insome embodiments, the first client application identifies each of theplurality of content responsive to a policy of the client application,and the policy specifies a type of content.

In some embodiments, the first client application determines that thepoint in the first user interface includes an input element accepting atype of content that is stored in the storage. In some embodiments, thefirst client application stores the plurality of content to storage onone of a client device of the first client application or one or moreservers. In some embodiments, the second user interface includes anoverlay for displaying the first content as selectable and provide asinput to the first user interface. In some embodiments, the first clientapplication organizes the plurality of content stored in the storageinto one or more categories of a plurality of categories by applyingmachine learning.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a method for reusingcontent from a plurality of network applications across a plurality ofclient applications. A first client application on a first client deviceestablishes a first plurality of sessions with a first plurality ofnetwork applications via a first embedded browser within the firstclient application. The first client application stores, to a workspaceservice, a first plurality of content provided as input to each of thefirst plurality of network applications. A second client application ona second client device establishes a second plurality of sessions with asecond plurality of network applications via a second embedded browserwithin the second client application. The second client applicationstores, to the workspace service, a second plurality of content providedas input to each of the second plurality of network applications. One ofthe first embedded browser or the second embedded browser receives aselection of content from the workspace service for input into an inputelement of a user interface. The user interface is displayed on thefirst embedded browser and the second embedded browser for multiple userinput between users of the first client device and the second clientdevice.

In some embodiments, the selected content is displayed in the inputelement of the user interface displayed on the first embedded browserand the second embedded browser. In some embodiments, at least one ormore of the first plurality of network applications are executed on oneor more servers operated by different entities than at least one or moreof the second plurality of network applications. In some embodiments,the first plurality of content and the second plurality of contentcomprise one or more of the following: portions of text, an attachment,an image, a file, a document, contact information, and clipboard orcopied data.

In some embodiments, the first client application communicates an invitevia the second client application for a second user of the second clientdevice to collaborate with a first user of the first client device on aninput element of the user interface of a network application of theplurality of network applications displayed in the first embeddedbrowser and the second embedded browser. In some embodiments, the secondclient application provides, responsive to acceptance of the invite, theuser interface for the second user to enter input into the input elementof the user interface of the network application displayed in the firstembedded browser and the second embedded browser.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a system for sharingcontent across a plurality of network applications. The system includesa first client application executable on one or more processors of afirst client device and a storage service. The first client applicationis configured to establish a plurality of sessions with a plurality ofnetwork applications via a first embedded browser within the firstclient application. The storage service is configured to store content.The first client application is configured to store in the storageservice a plurality of content input provided as input to each of theplurality of network applications. The first client application isconfigured to provide a second user interface from which to select atleast a first content of the plurality of content stored in storage froma second network application of the plurality of network applications asinput to a first user interface of a first network application of theplurality of application.

In some embodiments, the first client application is configured todetermine a point in the first user interface of the first networkapplication in which input from content of the plurality of content isavailable as input. In some embodiments, the storage services comprisesa workspace service executing on one or more servers. In someembodiments, a second client application on a second client device isconfigured to establish a second plurality of sessions with a pluralityof network applications via a second embedded browser within the secondclient application and stores to the workspace service a secondplurality of content provided as input to each of the second pluralityof network applications. In some embodiments, one of the first embeddedbrowser or the second embedded browser is configured to receive aselection of content from the workspace service for input into an inputelement of a second user interface displayed on the first embeddedbrowser and the second embedded browser for multiple user input betweenusers of the first client device and the second client device.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a method for providingrich content for an input field of a network application that acceptstext. A first client application establishes, for a first user of afirst entity, a first session to a network application of a secondentity via a first embedded browser within the first client application.The first embedded browser displays an input field of a first userinterface of the network application. The input field accepts textinput. The first client application provides a second user interfacethat allows entering of rich content in association with the inputfield. The first client application receives, at least for display viathe second user interface, rich content as input for the input field.The first client application stores a token in data of the input fieldof the first user interface to identify that the input field isassociated with the rich content. The first client application storesthe token associated with the rich content to a data storage service.

In some embodiments, the input field accepts only one of simple text orformatted text. In some embodiments, the second user interface comprisesan overlay to the first user interface displayed within the firstembedded browser. In some embodiments, the overlay is configured to beat least partially transparent and display on the second user interfacegraphical indicators or representations of the rich content. In someembodiments, the second user interface is configured to allow one ofdragging and dropping a file into the input field or taking a photo witha camera of a device. In some embodiments, the rich content comprisesone or more of the following: a video, an audio, an image, a document, asticker, an emoji, and an animation. In some embodiments, the firstclient application receives text as input to the input field, and entersand displays the text in the input field on the first user interface.

In some embodiments, one of the first client application or a secondclient application accesses content of the first network applicationcomprising the input field and detects the token in data of the inputfield. In some embodiments, one of the first client application or thesecond client application determines that the input field has associatedrich content responsive to the detection, and obtains from the datastorage service the rich content. In some embodiments, one of the firstclient application or the second client application displays, in one ofthe first embedded browser or the second embedded browser via the seconduser interface, the rich content in association with the input field.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a system for providingrich content for an input field of a network application that acceptstext. The system includes a first client application executable on oneor more processors of a first client device. The first clientapplication is configured to establish, for a first user of a firstentity, a first session of a network application of a second entity viaa first embedded browser within the first client application. The firstembedded browser is configured to display a first user interface of thenetwork application having an input field that accepts text input. Thefirst client application is configured to display a second userinterface that allows entering of rich content in association with theinput field, receive at least for display via the second user interfacerich content as input for the input field, store a token in data of theinput field of the first user interface to identify that the input fieldis associated with the rich content, and store the token associated withthe rich content in a data storage service.

In some embodiments, one of the first client application or a secondclient application is configured to access content of the first networkapplication comprising the input field, and detect the token in data ofthe input field. In some embodiments, the input field is determined tohave associated rich content responsive to the detection, and one of thefirst client application or a second client application is configured toobtain from the data storage service the rich content. In someembodiments, one of the first embedded browser or the second embeddedbrowser is configured to display, via the second user interface, therich content in association with the input field.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe present solution will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of embodiments of a computing device;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an illustrative embodiment of cloudservices for use in accessing resources;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of an enterprisemobility management system;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system of an embedded browser;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinga secure browser;

FIG. 6 is an example representation of an implementation for browserredirection using a secure browser plug-in;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of example embodiment of a system of using asecure browser;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 9 is an example process flow for using local embedded browser(s)and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 10 is an example embodiment of a system for managing user access towebpages;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system forsharing content across a plurality of applications;

FIG. 12 is an example embodiment of an embedded browser displaying auser interface of a network application;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a method forproviding rich content for an input field of a network applicationthrough an embedded browser;

FIG. 14 is an example embodiment of an embedded browser displaying arich content user interface overlaying a user interface of a networkapplication.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a method forsharing content across a plurality of network applications;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system forsharing content across a plurality of network applications;

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a method forsharing content from a plurality of network applications across aplurality of client applications; and

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system forsharing content from a plurality of network applications across aplurality of client applications.

The features and advantages of the present solution will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following descriptions of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents may be helpful:

Section A describes a computing environment which may be useful forpracticing embodiments described herein.

Section B describes systems and methods for an embedded browser.

Section C describes systems and methods for sharingsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) content across workspace.

A. Computing Environment

Prior to discussing the specifics of embodiments of the systems andmethods detailed herein in Section B, it may be helpful to discuss thecomputing environments in which such embodiments may be deployed.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer 101 may include one or more processors 103,volatile memory 122 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), non-volatilememory 128 (e.g., one or more hard disk drives (HDDs) or other magneticor optical storage media, one or more solid state drives (SSDs) such asa flash drive or other solid state storage media, one or more hybridmagnetic and solid state drives, and/or one or more virtual storagevolumes, such as a cloud storage, or a combination of such physicalstorage volumes and virtual storage volumes or arrays thereof), userinterface (UI) 123, one or more communications interfaces 118, andcommunication bus 150. User interface 123 may include graphical userinterface (GUI) 124 (e.g., a touchscreen, a display, etc.) and one ormore input/output (I/O) devices 126 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, amicrophone, one or more speakers, one or more cameras, one or morebiometric scanners, one or more environmental sensors, one or moreaccelerometers, etc.). Non-volatile memory 128 stores operating system115, one or more applications 116, and data 117 such that, for example,computer instructions of operating system 115 and/or applications 116are executed by processor(s) 103 out of volatile memory 122. In someembodiments, volatile memory 122 may include one or more types of RAMand/or a cache memory that may offer a faster response time than a mainmemory. Data may be entered using an input device of GUI 124 or receivedfrom I/O device(s) 126. Various elements of computer 101 may communicatevia one or more communication buses, shown as communication bus 150.

Computer 101 as shown in FIG. 1 is shown merely as an example, asclients, servers, intermediary and other networking devices and may beimplemented by any computing or processing environment and with any typeof machine or set of machines that may have suitable hardware and/orsoftware capable of operating as described herein. Processor(s) 103 maybe implemented by one or more programmable processors to execute one ormore executable instructions, such as a computer program, to perform thefunctions of the system. As used herein, the term “processor” describescircuitry that performs a function, an operation, or a sequence ofoperations. The function, operation, or sequence of operations may behard coded into the circuitry or soft coded by way of instructions heldin a memory device and executed by the circuitry. A “processor” mayperform the function, operation, or sequence of operations using digitalvalues and/or using analog signals. In some embodiments, the “processor”can be embodied in one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), microcontrollers, field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), programmable logic arrays (PLAs), multi-core processors,or general-purpose computers with associated memory. The “processor” maybe analog, digital or mixed-signal. In some embodiments, the “processor”may be one or more physical processors or one or more “virtual” (e.g.,remotely located or “cloud”) processors. A processor including multipleprocessor cores and/or multiple processors multiple processors mayprovide functionality for parallel, simultaneous execution ofinstructions or for parallel, simultaneous execution of one instructionon more than one piece of data.

Communications interfaces 118 may include one or more interfaces toenable computer 101 to access a computer network such as a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN),or the Internet through a variety of wired and/or wireless or cellularconnections.

In described embodiments, the computing device 101 may execute anapplication on behalf of a user of a client computing device. Forexample, the computing device 101 may execute a virtual machine, whichprovides an execution session within which applications execute onbehalf of a user or a client computing device, such as a hosted desktopsession. The computing device 101 may also execute a terminal servicessession to provide a hosted desktop environment. The computing device101 may provide access to a computing environment including one or moreof: one or more applications, one or more desktop applications, and oneor more desktop sessions in which one or more applications may execute.

Additional details of the implementation and operation of networkenvironment, computer 101 and client and server computers may be asdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,538,345, issued Jan. 3, 2017 to CitrixSystems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the teachings of which arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

B. Systems and Methods for an Embedded Browser

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods of anembedded browser. A client application executing on a client device canallow a user to access applications (apps) that are served from and/orhosted on one or more servers, such as web applications andsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) applications (hereafter sometimes generallyreferred to as network applications). A browser that is embedded orintegrated with the client application can render to the user a networkapplication that is accessed or requested via the client application,and can enable interactivity between the user and the networkapplication. The browser is sometimes referred to as an embeddedbrowser, and the client application with embedded browser (CEB) issometimes referred to as a workspace application. The client applicationcan establish a secure connection to the one or more servers to providean application session for the user to access the network applicationusing the client device and the embedded browser. The embedded browsercan be integrated with the client application to ensure that trafficrelated to the network application is routed through and/or processed inthe client application, which can provide the client application withreal-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through theclient application), and user interactions and behavior. The embeddedbrowser can provide a seamless experience to a user as the networkapplication is requested via the user interface (shared by the clientapplication and the embedded browser) and rendered through the embeddedbrowser within the same user interface.

The client application can terminate one end of a secured connectionestablished with a server of a network application, such as a securesockets layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN) connection. The clientapplication can receive encrypted traffic from the network application,and can decrypt the traffic before further processing (e.g., renderingby the embedded browser). The client application can monitor thereceived traffic (e.g., in encrypted packet form), and also have fullvisibility into the decrypted data stream and/or the SSL stack. Thisvisibility can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control (e.g., to improve performance,service level), and collection and production of analytics. Forinstance, the local CEB can provide an information technology (IT)administrator with a controlled system for deploying web and SaaSapplications through the CEB, and allow the IT administrator to setpolicies or configurations via the CEB for performing any of theforgoing activities.

Many web and SaaS delivered applications connect from web servers togeneric browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, and so on) of users.Once authenticated, the entire session of such a network application isencrypted. However, in this scenario, an administrator may not havevisibility, analytics, or control of the content entering the networkapplication from the user's digital workspace, or the content leavingthe network application and entering the user's digital workspace.Moreover, content of a network application viewed in a generic browsercan be copied or downloaded (e.g., by a user or program) to potentiallyany arbitrary application or device, resulting in a possible breach indata security.

This present systems and methods can ensure that traffic associated witha network application is channeled through a CEB. By way ofillustration, when a user accesses a SaaS web service with securityassertion markup language (SAML) enabled for instance, the correspondingaccess request can be forwarded to a designated gateway service thatdetermines, checks or verifies if the CEB was used to make the accessrequest. Responsive to determining that a CEB was used to make theaccess request, the gateway service can perform or provideauthentication and single-sign-on (SSO), and can allow the CEB toconnect directly to the SaaS web service. Encryption (e.g., standardencryption) can be used for the application session between the CEB andthe SaaS web service. When the content from the web service isunencrypted in the CEB to the viewed via the embedded browser, and/orwhen input is entered via the CEB, the CEB can provide added services onselective application-related information for control and analytics forinstance. For example, an analytics agent or application programminginterface (API) can be embedded in the CEB to provide or perform theadded services.

The CEB (sometimes referred to as workspace application or receiver) caninteroperate with one or more gateway services, intermediaries and/ornetwork servers (sometimes collectively referred to as cloud services orCitrix Cloud) to provide access to a network application. Features andelements of an environment related to the operation of an embodiment ofcloud services are described below.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of cloud services for use in accessingresources including network applications. The cloud services can includean enterprise mobility technical architecture 200, which can include anaccess gateway 260 in one illustrative embodiment. The architecture canbe used in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment for instance. Thearchitecture can enable a user of a client device 202 (e.g., a mobile orother device) to both access enterprise or personal resources from aclient device 202, and use the client device 202 for personal use. Theuser may access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208via a client application executing on the client device 202. The usermay access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208using a client device 202 that is purchased by the user or a clientdevice 202 that is provided by the enterprise to user. The user mayutilize the client device 202 for business use only or for business andpersonal use. The client device may run an iOS operating system, andAndroid operating system, or the like. The enterprise may choose toimplement policies to manage the client device 202. The policies may beimplanted through a firewall or gateway in such a way that the clientdevice may be identified, secured or security verified, and providedselective or full access to the enterprise resources. The policies maybe client device management policies, mobile application managementpolicies, mobile data management policies, or some combination of clientdevice, application, and data management policies. A client device 202that is managed through the application of client device managementpolicies may be referred to as an enrolled device. The client devicemanagement policies can be applied via the client application forinstance.

In some embodiments, the operating system of the client device may beseparated into a managed partition 210 and an unmanaged partition 212.The managed partition 210 may have policies applied to it to secure theapplications running on and data stored in the managed partition. Theapplications running on the managed partition may be secureapplications. In other embodiments, all applications may execute inaccordance with a set of one or more policy files received separate fromthe application, and which define one or more security parameters,features, resource restrictions, and/or other access controls that areenforced by the client device management system when that application isexecuting on the device. By operating in accordance with theirrespective policy file(s), each application may be allowed or restrictedfrom communications with one or more other applications and/orresources, thereby creating a virtual partition. Thus, as used herein, apartition may refer to a physically partitioned portion of memory(physical partition), a logically partitioned portion of memory (logicalpartition), and/or a virtual partition created as a result ofenforcement of one or more policies and/or policy files across multipleapps as described herein (virtual partition). Stated differently, byenforcing policies on managed apps, those apps may be restricted to onlybe able to communicate with other managed apps and trusted enterpriseresources, thereby creating a virtual partition that is not accessibleby unmanaged apps and devices.

The secure applications may be email applications, web browsingapplications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) access applications, WindowsApplication access applications, and the like. The client applicationcan include a secure application launcher 218. The secure applicationsmay be secure native applications 214, secure remote applications 222executed by the secure application launcher 218, virtualizationapplications 226 executed by the secure application launcher 218, andthe like. The secure native applications 214 may be wrapped by a secureapplication wrapper 220. The secure application wrapper 220 may includeintegrated policies that are executed on the client device 202 when thesecure native application is executed on the device. The secureapplication wrapper 220 may include meta-data that points the securenative application 214 running on the client device 202 to the resourceshosted at the enterprise that the secure native application 214 mayrequire to complete the task requested upon execution of the securenative application 214. The secure remote applications 222 executed by asecure application launcher 218 may be executed within the secureapplication launcher application 218. The virtualization applications226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 may utilize resourceson the client device 202, at the enterprise resources 204, and the like.The resources used on the client device 202 by the virtualizationapplications 226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 mayinclude user interaction resources, processing resources, and the like.The user interaction resources may be used to collect and transmitkeyboard input, mouse input, camera input, tactile input, audio input,visual input, gesture input, and the like. The processing resources maybe used to present a user interface, process data received from theenterprise resources 204, and the like. The resources used at theenterprise resources 204 by the virtualization applications 226 executedby a secure application launcher 218 may include user interfacegeneration resources, processing resources, and the like. The userinterface generation resources may be used to assemble a user interface,modify a user interface, refresh a user interface, and the like. Theprocessing resources may be used to create information, readinformation, update information, delete information, and the like. Forexample, the virtualization application may record user interactionsassociated with a graphical user interface (GUI) and communicate them toa server application where the server application may use the userinteraction data as an input to the application operating on the server.In this arrangement, an enterprise may elect to maintain the applicationon the server side as well as data, files, etc., associated with theapplication. While an enterprise may elect to “mobilize” someapplications in accordance with the principles herein by securing themfor deployment on the client device (e.g., via the client application),this arrangement may also be elected for certain applications. Forexample, while some applications may be secured for use on the clientdevice, others might not be prepared or appropriate for deployment onthe client device so the enterprise may elect to provide the mobile useraccess to the unprepared applications through virtualization techniques.As another example, the enterprise may have large complex applicationswith large and complex data sets (e.g., material resource planningapplications) where it would be very difficult, or otherwiseundesirable, to customize the application for the client device so theenterprise may elect to provide access to the application throughvirtualization techniques. As yet another example, the enterprise mayhave an application that maintains highly secured data (e.g., humanresources data, customer data, engineering data) that may be deemed bythe enterprise as too sensitive for even the secured mobile environmentso the enterprise may elect to use virtualization techniques to permitmobile access to such applications and data. An enterprise may elect toprovide both fully secured and fully functional applications on theclient device. The enterprise can use a client application, which caninclude a virtualization application, to allow access to applicationsthat are deemed more properly operated on the server side. In anembodiment, the virtualization application may store some data, files,etc., on the mobile phone in one of the secure storage locations. Anenterprise, for example, may elect to allow certain information to bestored on the phone while not permitting other information.

In connection with the virtualization application, as described herein,the client device may have a virtualization application that is designedto present GUIs and then record user interactions with the GUI. Thevirtualization application may communicate the user interactions to theserver side to be used by the server side application as userinteractions with the application. In response, the application on theserver side may transmit back to the client device a new GUI. Forexample, the new GUI may be a static page, a dynamic page, an animation,or the like, thereby providing access to remotely located resources.

The secure applications may access data stored in a secure datacontainer 228 in the managed partition 210 of the client device. Thedata secured in the secure data container may be accessed by the securewrapped applications 214, applications executed by a secure applicationlauncher 222, virtualization applications 226 executed by a secureapplication launcher 218, and the like. The data stored in the securedata container 228 may include files, databases, and the like. The datastored in the secure data container 228 may include data restricted to aspecific secure application 230, shared among secure applications 232,and the like. Data restricted to a secure application may include securegeneral data 234 and highly secure data 238. Secure general data may usea strong form of encryption such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)128-bit encryption or the like, while highly secure data 238 may use avery strong form of encryption such as AES 256-bit encryption. Datastored in the secure data container 228 may be deleted from the deviceupon receipt of a command from the device manager 224. The secureapplications may have a dual-mode option 240. The dual mode option 240may present the user with an option to operate the secured applicationin an unsecured or unmanaged mode. In an unsecured or unmanaged mode,the secure applications may access data stored in an unsecured datacontainer 242 on the unmanaged partition 212 of the client device 202.The data stored in an unsecured data container may be personal data 244.The data stored in an unsecured data container 242 may also be accessedby unsecured applications 248 that are running on the unmanagedpartition 212 of the client device 202. The data stored in an unsecureddata container 242 may remain on the client device 202 when the datastored in the secure data container 228 is deleted from the clientdevice 202. An enterprise may want to delete from the client deviceselected or all data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed orcontrolled by the enterprise (enterprise data) while leaving orotherwise preserving personal data, files, and/or applications owned,licensed or controlled by the user (personal data). This operation maybe referred to as a selective wipe. With the enterprise and personaldata arranged in accordance to the aspects described herein, anenterprise may perform a selective wipe.

The client device 202 may connect to enterprise resources 204 andenterprise services 208 at an enterprise, to the public Internet 248,and the like. The client device may connect to enterprise resources 204and enterprise services 208 through virtual private network connections.The virtual private network connections, also referred to as microVPN orapplication-specific VPN, may be specific to particular applications(e.g., as illustrated by microVPNs 250), particular devices, particularsecured areas on the client device (e.g., as illustrated by O/S VPN252), and the like. For example, each of the wrapped applications in thesecured area of the phone may access enterprise resources through anapplication specific VPN such that access to the VPN would be grantedbased on attributes associated with the application, possibly inconjunction with user or device attribute information. The virtualprivate network connections may carry Microsoft Exchange traffic,Microsoft Active Directory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, applicationmanagement traffic, and the like. The virtual private networkconnections may support and enable single-sign-on authenticationprocesses 254. The single-sign-on processes may allow a user to providea single set of authentication credentials, which are then verified byan authentication service 258. The authentication service 258 may thengrant to the user access to multiple enterprise resources 204, withoutrequiring the user to provide authentication credentials to eachindividual enterprise resource 204.

The virtual private network connections may be established and managedby an access gateway 260. The access gateway 260 may include performanceenhancement features that manage, accelerate, and improve the deliveryof enterprise resources 204 to the client device 202. The access gatewaymay also re-route traffic from the client device 202 to the publicInternet 248, enabling the client device 202 to access publiclyavailable and unsecured applications that run on the public Internet248. The client device may connect to the access gateway via a transportnetwork 262. The transport network 262 may use one or more transportprotocols and may be a wired network, wireless network, cloud network,local area network, metropolitan area network, wide area network, publicnetwork, private network, and the like.

The enterprise resources 204 may include email servers, file sharingservers, SaaS/Web applications, Web application servers, Windowsapplication servers, and the like. Email servers may include Exchangeservers, Lotus Notes servers, and the like. File sharing servers mayinclude ShareFile servers, and the like. SaaS applications may includeSalesforce, and the like. Windows application servers may include anyapplication server that is built to provide applications that areintended to run on a local Windows operating system, and the like. Theenterprise resources 204 may be premise-based resources, cloud basedresources, and the like. The enterprise resources 204 may be accessed bythe client device 202 directly or through the access gateway 260. Theenterprise resources 204 may be accessed by the client device 202 via atransport network 262. The transport network 262 may be a wired network,wireless network, cloud network, local area network, metropolitan areanetwork, wide area network, public network, private network, and thelike.

Cloud services can include an access gateway 260 and/or enterpriseservices 208. The enterprise services 208 may include authenticationservices 258, threat detection services 264, device manager services224, file sharing services 268, policy manager services 270, socialintegration services 272, application controller services 274, and thelike. Authentication services 258 may include user authenticationservices, device authentication services, application authenticationservices, data authentication services and the like. Authenticationservices 258 may use certificates. The certificates may be stored on theclient device 202, by the enterprise resources 204, and the like. Thecertificates stored on the client device 202 may be stored in anencrypted location on the client device, the certificate may betemporarily stored on the client device 202 for use at the time ofauthentication, and the like. Threat detection services 264 may includeintrusion detection services, unauthorized access attempt detectionservices, and the like. Unauthorized access attempt detection servicesmay include unauthorized attempts to access devices, applications, data,and the like. Device management services 224 may include configuration,provisioning, security, support, monitoring, reporting, anddecommissioning services. File sharing services 268 may include filemanagement services, file storage services, file collaboration services,and the like. Policy manager services 270 may include device policymanager services, application policy manager services, data policymanager services, and the like. Social integration services 272 mayinclude contact integration services, collaboration services,integration with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, andLinkedIn, and the like. Application controller services 274 may includemanagement services, provisioning services, deployment services,assignment services, revocation services, wrapping services, and thelike.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 may include anapplication store 278. The application store 278 may include unwrappedapplications 280, pre-wrapped applications 282, and the like.Applications may be populated in the application store 278 from theapplication controller 274. The application store 278 may be accessed bythe client device 202 through the access gateway 260, through the publicInternet 248, or the like. The application store may be provided with anintuitive and easy to use User Interface.

A software development kit 284 may provide a user the capability tosecure applications selected by the user by providing a secure wrapperaround the application. An application that has been wrapped using thesoftware development kit 284 may then be made available to the clientdevice 202 by populating it in the application store 278 using theapplication controller 274.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 may include amanagement and analytics capability. The management and analyticscapability may provide information related to how resources are used,how often resources are used, and the like. Resources may includedevices, applications, data, and the like. How resources are used mayinclude which devices download which applications, which applicationsaccess which data, and the like. How often resources are used mayinclude how often an application has been downloaded, how many times aspecific set of data has been accessed by an application, and the like.

FIG. 3 depicts is an illustrative embodiment of an enterprise mobilitymanagement system 300. Some of the components of the mobility managementsystem 200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 have been omittedfor the sake of simplicity. The architecture of the system 300 depictedin FIG. 3 is similar in many respects to the architecture of the system200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 and may include additionalfeatures not mentioned above.

In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled client device302 with a client agent 304, which interacts with gateway server 306 toaccess various enterprise resources 308 and services 309 such as Web orSasS applications, Exchange, Sharepoint, public-key infrastructure (PKI)Resources, Kerberos Resources, Certificate Issuance service, as shown onthe right hand side above. The gateway server 306 can includeembodiments of features and functionalities of the cloud services, suchas access gateway 260 and application controller functionality. Althoughnot specifically shown, the client agent 304 may be part of, and/orinteract with the client application which can operate as an enterpriseapplication store (storefront) for the selection and/or downloading ofnetwork applications.

The client agent 304 can act as a UI (user interface) intermediary forWindows apps/desktops hosted in an Enterprise data center, which areaccessed using the High-Definition User Experience (HDX) or IndependentComputing Architecture (ICA) display remoting protocol. The client agent304 can also support the installation and management of nativeapplications on the client device 302, such as native iOS or Androidapplications. For example, the managed applications 310 (mail, browser,wrapped application) shown in the figure above are native applicationsthat execute locally on the device. Client agent 304 and applicationmanagement framework of this architecture act to provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features such as connectivity and SSO(single sign on) to enterprise resources/services 308. The client agent304 handles primary user authentication to the enterprise, for instanceto access gateway (AG) with SSO to other gateway server components. Theclient agent 304 obtains policies from gateway server 306 to control thebehavior of the managed applications 310 on the client device 302.

The Secure interprocess communication (IPC) links 312 between the nativeapplications 310 and client agent 304 represent a management channel,which allows client agent to supply policies to be enforced by theapplication management framework 314 “wrapping” each application. TheIPC channel 312 also allows client agent 304 to supply credential andauthentication information that enables connectivity and SSO toenterprise resources 308. Finally the IPC channel 312 allows theapplication management framework 314 to invoke user interface functionsimplemented by client agent 304, such as online and offlineauthentication.

Communications between the client agent 304 and gateway server 306 areessentially an extension of the management channel from the applicationmanagement framework 314 wrapping each native managed application 310.The application management framework 314 requests policy informationfrom client agent 304, which in turn requests it from gateway server306. The application management framework 314 requests authentication,and client agent 304 logs into the gateway services part of gatewayserver 306 (also known as NetScaler access gateway). Client agent 304may also call supporting services on gateway server 306, which mayproduce input material to derive encryption keys for the local datavaults 316, or provide client certificates which may enable directauthentication to PKI protected resources, as more fully explainedbelow.

In more detail, the application management framework 314 “wraps” eachmanaged application 310. This may be incorporated via an explicit buildstep, or via a post-build processing step. The application managementframework 314 may “pair” with client agent 304 on first launch of anapplication 310 to initialize the Secure IPC channel and obtain thepolicy for that application. The application management framework 314may enforce relevant portions of the policy that apply locally, such asthe client agent login dependencies and some of the containment policiesthat restrict how local OS services may be used, or how they mayinteract with the application 310.

The application management framework 314 may use services provided byclient agent 304 over the Secure IPC channel 312 to facilitateauthentication and internal network access. Key management for theprivate and shared data vaults 316 (containers) may be also managed byappropriate interactions between the managed applications 310 and clientagent 304. Vaults 316 may be available only after online authentication,or may be made available after offline authentication if allowed bypolicy. First use of vaults 316 may require online authentication, andoffline access may be limited to at most the policy refresh periodbefore online authentication is again required.

Network access to internal resources may occur directly from individualmanaged applications 310 through access gateway 306. The applicationmanagement framework 314 is responsible for orchestrating the networkaccess on behalf of each application 310. Client agent 304 mayfacilitate these network connections by providing suitable time limitedsecondary credentials obtained following online authentication. Multiplemodes of network connection may be used, such as reverse web proxyconnections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 318.

The Mail and Browser managed applications 310 can have special statusand may make use of facilities that might not be generally available toarbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the Mail application mayuse a special background network access mechanism that allows it toaccess Exchange over an extended period of time without requiring a fullAG logon. The Browser application may use multiple private data vaultsto segregate different kinds of data.

This architecture can support the incorporation of various othersecurity features. For example, gateway server 306 (including itsgateway services) in some cases might not need to validate activedirectory (AD) passwords. It can be left to the discretion of anenterprise whether an AD password is used as an authentication factorfor some users in some situations. Different authentication methods maybe used if a user is online or offline (i.e., connected or not connectedto a network).

Step up authentication is a feature wherein gateway server 306 mayidentify managed native applications 310 that are allowed to have accessto more sensitive data using strong authentication, and ensure thataccess to these applications is only permitted after performingappropriate authentication, even if this means a re-authentication isrequested from the user after a prior weaker level of login.

Another security feature of this solution is the encryption of the datavaults 316 (containers) on the client device 302. The vaults 316 may beencrypted so that all on-device data including clipboard/cache data,files, databases, and configurations are protected. For on-line vaults,the keys may be stored on the server (gateway server 306), and foroff-line vaults, a local copy of the keys may be protected by a userpassword or biometric validation. When data is stored locally on thedevice 302 in the secure container 316, it is preferred that a minimumof AES 256 encryption algorithm be utilized.

Other secure container features may also be implemented. For example, alogging feature may be included, wherein all security events happeninginside an application 310 are logged and reported to the backend. Datawiping may be supported, such as if the application 310 detectstampering, associated encryption keys may be written over with randomdata, leaving no hint on the file system that user data was destroyed.Screenshot protection is another feature, where an application mayprevent any data from being stored in screenshots. For example, the keywindow's hidden property may be set to YES. This may cause whatevercontent is currently displayed on the screen to be hidden, resulting ina blank screenshot where any content would normally reside.

Local data transfer may be prevented, such as by preventing any datafrom being locally transferred outside the application container, e.g.,by copying it or sending it to an external application. A keyboard cachefeature may operate to disable the autocorrect functionality forsensitive text fields. SSL certificate validation may be operable so theapplication specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead ofit being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation featuremay be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the device isgenerated using a passphrase or biometric data supplied by the user (ifoffline access is required). It may be XORed with another key randomlygenerated and stored on the server side if offline access is notrequired. Key Derivation functions may operate such that keys generatedfrom the user password use KDFs (key derivation functions, notablyPassword-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)) rather than creatinga cryptographic hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptible to bruteforce or dictionary attacks.

Further, one or more initialization vectors may be used in encryptionmethods. An initialization vector might cause multiple copies of thesame encrypted data to yield different cipher text output, preventingboth replay and cryptanalytic attacks. This may also prevent an attackerfrom decrypting any data even with a stolen encryption key. Further,authentication then decryption may be used, wherein application data isdecrypted only after the user has authenticated within the application.Another feature may relate to sensitive data in memory, which may bekept in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. For example,login credentials may be wiped from memory after login, and encryptionkeys and other data inside objective-C instance variables are notstored, as they may be easily referenced. Instead, memory may bemanually allocated for these.

An inactivity timeout may be implemented via the CEB, wherein after apolicy-defined period of inactivity, a user session is terminated.

Data leakage from the application management framework 314 may beprevented in other ways. For example, when an application 310 is put inthe background, the memory may be cleared after a predetermined(configurable) time period. When backgrounded, a snapshot may be takenof the last displayed screen of the application to fasten theforegrounding process. The screenshot may contain confidential data andhence should be cleared.

Another security feature relates to the use of an OTP (one timepassword) 320 without the use of an AD (active directory) 322 passwordfor access to one or more applications. In some cases, some users do notknow (or are not permitted to know) their AD password, so these usersmay authenticate using an OTP 320 such as by using a hardware OTP systemlike SecurID (OTPs may be provided by different vendors also, such asEntrust or Gemalto). In some cases, after a user authenticates with auser ID, a text is sent to the user with an OTP 320. In some cases, thismay be implemented only for online use, with a prompt being a singlefield.

An offline password may be implemented for offline authentication forthose applications 310 for which offline use is permitted via enterprisepolicy. For example, an enterprise may want storefront to be accessed inthis manner. In this case, the client agent 304 may require the user toset a custom offline password and the AD password is not used. Gatewayserver 306 may provide policies to control and enforce passwordstandards with respect to the minimum length, character classcomposition, and age of passwords, such as described by the standardWindows Server password complexity requirements, although theserequirements may be modified.

Another feature relates to the enablement of a client side certificatefor certain applications 310 as secondary credentials (for the purposeof accessing PKI protected web resources via the application managementframework micro VPN feature). For example, an application may utilizesuch a certificate. In this case, certificate-based authentication usingActiveSync protocol may be supported, wherein a certificate from theclient agent 304 may be retrieved by gateway server 306 and used in akeychain. Each managed application may have one associated clientcertificate, identified by a label that is defined in gateway server306.

Gateway server 306 may interact with an Enterprise special purpose webservice to support the issuance of client certificates to allow relevantmanaged applications to authenticate to internal PKI protectedresources.

The client agent 304 and the application management framework 314 may beenhanced to support obtaining and using client certificates forauthentication to internal PKI protected network resources. More thanone certificate may be supported, such as to match various levels ofsecurity and/or separation requirements. The certificates may be used bythe Mail and Browser managed applications, and ultimately by arbitrarywrapped applications (provided those applications use web service stylecommunication patterns where it is reasonable for the applicationmanagement framework to mediate https requests).

Application management client certificate support on iOS may rely onimporting a public-key cryptography standards (PKCS) 12 BLOB (BinaryLarge Object) into the iOS keychain in each managed application for eachperiod of use. Application management framework client certificatesupport may use a HTTPS implementation with private in-memory keystorage. The client certificate might never be present in the iOSkeychain and might not be persisted except potentially in “online-only”data value that is strongly protected.

Mutual SSL or TLS may also be implemented to provide additional securityby requiring that a client device 302 is authenticated to theenterprise, and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for authentication togateway server 306 may also be implemented.

Both limited and full Kerberos support may be additional features. Thefull support feature relates to an ability to do full Kerberos login toActive Directory (AD) 322, using an AD password or trusted clientcertificate, and obtain Kerberos service tickets to respond to HTTPNegotiate authentication challenges. The limited support feature relatesto constrained delegation in Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition(AGEE), where AGEE supports invoking Kerberos protocol transition so itcan obtain and use Kerberos service tickets (subject to constraineddelegation) in response to HTTP Negotiate authentication challenges.This mechanism works in reverse web proxy (aka corporate virtual privatenetwork (CVPN)) mode, and when http (but not https) connections areproxied in VPN and MicroVPN mode.

Another feature relates to application container locking and wiping,which may automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting detections, andoccur as a pushed command from administration console, and may include aremote wipe functionality even when an application 310 is not running.

A multi-site architecture or configuration of enterprise applicationstore and an application controller may be supported that allows usersto be service from one of several different locations in case offailure.

In some cases, managed applications 310 may be allowed to access acertificate and private key via an API (example OpenSSL). Trustedmanaged applications 310 of an enterprise may be allowed to performspecific Public Key operations with an application's client certificateand private key. Various use cases may be identified and treatedaccordingly, such as when an application behaves like a browser and nocertificate access is used, when an application reads a certificate for“who am I,” when an application uses the certificate to build a securesession token, and when an application uses private keys for digitalsigning of important data (e.g., transaction log) or for temporary dataencryption.

Referring now to FIG. 4, depicted is a block diagram of a system 400 ofan embedded browser. In brief overview, the system 400 may include aclient device 402 with a digital workspace for a user, a clientapplication 404, cloud services 408 operating on at least one networkdevice 432, and network applications 406 served from and/or hosted onone or more servers 430. The client application 404 can for instanceinclude at least one of: an embedded browser 410, a networking agent412, a cloud services agent 414, a remote session agent 416, or a securecontainer 418. The cloud services 408 can for instance include at leastone of: secure browser(s) 420, an access gateway 422 (or CIS, e.g., forregistering and/or authenticating the client application and/or user),or analytics services 424 (or CAS, e.g., for receiving information fromthe client application for analytics). The network applications 406 caninclude sanctioned applications 426 and non-sanctioned applications 428.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the system 400 may be implemented usinghardware or a combination of hardware or software detailed above inconnection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of these elements or entitiescan include any application, program, library, script, task, service,process or any type and form of executable instructions executing onhardware of the client device 402, the at least one network device 432and/or the one or more servers 430. The hardware includes circuitry suchas one or more processors in one or more embodiments. For example, theat least one network device 432 and/or the one or more servers 430 caninclude any of the elements of a computing device described above inconnection with at least FIG. 1 for instance.

The client device 402 can include any embodiment of a computing devicedescribed above in connection with at least FIG. 1 for instance. Theclient device 402 can include any user device such as a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a tablet device, a smart phone, or anyother mobile or personal device. The client device 402 can include adigital workspace of a user, which can include file system(s), cache ormemory (e.g., including electronic clipboard(s)), container(s),application(s) and/or other resources on the client device 402. Thedigital workspace can include or extend to one or more networksaccessible by the client device 402, such as an intranet and theInternet, including file system(s) and/or other resources accessible viathe one or more networks. A portion of the digital workspace can besecured via the use of the client application 404 with embedded browser410 (CEB) for instance. The secure portion of the digital workspace caninclude for instance file system(s), cache or memory (e.g., includingelectronic clipboard(s)), application(s), container(s) and/or otherresources allocated to the CEB, and/or allocated by the CEB to networkapplication(s) 406 accessed via the CEB. The secure portion of thedigital workspace can also include resources specified by the CEB (viaone or more policies) for inclusion in the secure portion of the digitalworkspace (e.g., a particular local application can be specified via apolicy to be allowed to receive data obtained from a networkapplication).

The client application 404 can include one or more components, such asan embedded browser 410, a networking agent 412, a cloud services agent414 (sometimes referred to as management agent), a remote session agent416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine), and/or a secure container 418(sometimes referred to as secure cache container). One or more of thecomponents can be installed as part of a software build or release ofthe client application 404 or CEB, or separately acquired or downloadedand installed/integrated into an existing installation of the clientapplication 404 or CEB for instance. For instance, the client device maydownload or otherwise receive the client application 404 (or anycomponent) from the network device(s) 432. In some embodiments, theclient device may send a request for the client application 404 to thenetwork device(s) 432. For example, a user of the client device caninitiate a request, download and/or installation of the clientapplication. The network device(s) 432 in turn may send the clientapplication to the client device. In some embodiments, the networkdevice(s) 432 may send a setup or installation application for theclient application to the client device. Upon receipt, the client devicemay install the client application onto a hard disk of the clientdevice. In some embodiments, the client device may run the setupapplication to unpack or decompress a package of the client application.In some embodiments, the client application may be an extension (e.g.,an add-on, an add-in, an applet or a plug-in) to another application(e.g., a networking agent 412) installed on the client device. Theclient device may install the client application to interface orinter-operate with the pre-installed application. In some embodiments,the client application may be a standalone application. The clientdevice may install the client application to execute as a separateprocess.

The embedded browser 410 can include elements and functionalities of aweb browser application or engine. The embedded browser 410 can locallyrender network application(s) as a component or extension of the clientapplication. For instance, the embedded browser 410 can render aSaaS/Web application inside the CEB which can provide the CEB with fullvisibility and control of the application session. The embedded browsercan be embedded or incorporated into the client application via anymeans, such as direct integration (e.g., programming language or scriptinsertion) into the executable code of the client application, or viaplugin installation. For example, the embedded browser can include aChromium based browser engine or other type of browser engine, that canbe embedded into the client application, using the Chromium embeddedframework (CEF) for instance. The embedded browser can include aHTML5-based layout graphical user interface (GUI). The embedded browsercan provide HTML rendering and JavaScript support to a clientapplication incorporating various programming languages. For example,elements of the embedded browser can bind to a client applicationincorporating C, C++, Delphi, Go, Java, .NET/Mono, Visual Basic 6.0,and/or Python.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser comprises a plug-in installedon the client application. For example, the plug-in can include one ormore components. One such components can be an ActiveX control or Javacontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the client application. For example,the client application can load and run an Active X control of theembedded browser, such as in a memory space or context of the clientapplication. In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be installedas an extension on the client application, and a user can choose toenable or disable the plugin or extension. The embedded browser (e.g.,via the plugin or extension) can form or operate as a secured browserfor securing, using and/or accessing resources within the securedportion of the digital workspace.

The embedded browser can incorporate code and functionalities beyondthat available or possible in a standard or typical browser. Forinstance, the embedded browser can bind with or be assigned with asecured container 418, to define at least part of the secured portion ofa user's digital workspace. The embedded browser can bind with or beassigned with a portion of the client device's cache to form a securedclipboard (e.g., local to the client device, or extendable to otherdevices), that can be at least part of the secured container 418. Theembedded browser can be integrated with the client application to ensurethat traffic related to network applications is routed through and/orprocessed in the client application, which can provide the clientapplication with real-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., whendecrypted through the client application). This visibility to thetraffic can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control, and collection and production ofanalytics.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser incorporates one or more othercomponents of the client application 404, such as the cloud servicesagent 414, remote session agent 416 and/or secure container 418. Forinstance, a user can use the cloud services agent 414 of the embeddedbrowser to interoperate with the access gateway 422 (sometimes referredto as CIS) to access a network application. For example, the cloudservices agent 414 can execute within the embedded browser, and canreceive and transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to ahosted network application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

The client application 404 and CEB operate on the application layer ofthe operational (OSI) stack of the client device. The client application404 can include and/or execute one or more agents that interoperate withthe cloud services 408. The client application 404 can receive, obtain,retrieve or otherwise access various policies (e.g., an enterprise'scustom, specified or internal policies or rules) and/or data (e.g., froman access gateway 422 and/or network device(s) of cloud services 408, orother server(s), that may be managed by the enterprise). The clientapplication can access the policies and/or data to control and/or managea network application (e.g., a SaaS, web or remote-hosted application).Control and/or management of a network application can include controland/or management of various aspects of the network application, such asaccess control, session delivery, available features or functions,service level, traffic management and monitoring, and so on. The networkapplication can be from a provider or vendor of the enterprise (e.g.,salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft Office 365), from the enterprise itself,or from another entity (e.g., Dropbox or Gmail service).

For example, the cloud services agent 414 can provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features related to the use and/or access ofnetwork applications. For example, the cloud services agent 414 caninclude a policy engine to apply one or more policies (e.g., receivedfrom cloud services) to determine access control and/or connectivity toresources such as network applications. When a session is establishedbetween the client application and a server 430 providing a SaaSapplication for instance, the cloud services agent 414 can apply one ormore policies to control traffic levels and/or traffic types (or otheraspects) of the session, for instance to manage a service level of theSaaS application. Additional aspects of the application traffic that canbe controlled or managed can include encryption level and/or encryptiontype applied to the traffic, level of interactivity allowed for a user,limited access to certain features of the network application (e.g.,print-screen, save, edit or copy functions), restrictions to use ortransfer of data obtained from the network application, limit concurrentaccess to two or more network applications, limit access to certain filerepositories or other resources, and so on.

The cloud services agent 414 can convey or feed information to analyticsservices 424 of the cloud services 408, such as information about SaaSinteraction events visible to the CEB. Such a configuration using theCEB can monitor or capture information for analytics without having aninline device or proxy located between the client device and theserver(s) 430, or using a SaaS API gateway ‘out-of-band’ approach. Insome embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 does not execute withinthe embedded browser. In these embodiments, a user can similarly use thecloud services agent 414 to interoperate with the access gateway (orCIS) 422 to access a network application. For instance, the cloudservices agent 414 can register and/or authenticate with the accessgateway (or CIS) 422, and can obtain a list of the network applicationsfrom the access gateway (or CIS) 422. The cloud services agent 414 caninclude and/or operate as an application store (or storefront) for userselection and/or downloading of network applications. Upon logging in toaccess a network application, the cloud services agent 414 can interceptand transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to thenetwork application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

In some embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 provides single signon (SSO) capability for the user and/or client device to access aplurality of network applications. The cloud services agent 414 canperform user authentication to access network applications as well asother network resources and services, by communicating with the accessgateway 422 for instance. For example, the cloud services agent 414 canauthenticate or register with the access gateway 422, to access othercomponents of the cloud services 408 and/or the network applications406. Responsive to the authentication or registration, the accessgateway 422 can perform authentication and/or SSO for (or on behalf of)the user and/or client application, with the network applications.

The client application 404 can include a networking agent 412. Thenetworking agent 412 is sometimes referred to as a software-defined widearea network (SD-WAN) agent, mVPN agent, or microVPN agent. Thenetworking agent 412 can establish or facilitate establishment of anetwork connection between the client application and one or moreresources (e.g., server 430 serving a network application). Thenetworking agent 412 can perform handshaking for a requested connectionfrom the client application to access a network application, and canestablish the requested connection (e.g., secure or encryptedconnection). The networking agent 412 can connect to enterpriseresources (including services) for instance via a virtual privatenetwork (VPN). For example, the networking agent 412 can establish asecure socket layer (SSL) VPN between the client application and aserver 430 providing the network application 406. The VPN connections,sometimes referred to as microVPN or application-specific VPN, may bespecific to particular network applications, particular devices,particular secured areas on the client device, and the like, forinstance as discussed above in connection with FIG. 3. Such VPNconnections can carry Microsoft Exchange traffic, Microsoft ActiveDirectory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperTextTransfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, as some examples.

The remote session agent 416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine) caninclude features of the client agent 304 discussed above in connectionwith FIG. 2 for instance, to support display a remoting protocol (e.g.,HDX or ICA). In some embodiments, the remote session agent 416 canestablish a remote desktop session and/or remote application session inaccordance to any variety of protocols, such as the Remote DesktopProtocol (RDP), Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), Remote Frame Buffer (RFB)Protocol, and ICA Protocol. For example, the remote session agent 416can establish a remote application session for a user of the clientdevice to access an enterprise network application. The remote sessionagent 416 can establish the remote application session within or over asecure connection (e.g., a VPN) established by the networking agent 412for instance.

The client application or CEB can include or be associated with a securecontainer 418. A secure container can include a logical or virtualdelineation of one or more types of resources accessible within theclient device and/or accessible by the client device. For example, thesecure container 418 can refer to the entirety of the secured portion ofthe digital workspace, or particular aspect(s) of the secured portion.In some embodiments, the secure container 418 corresponds to a securecache (e.g., electronic or virtual clipboard), and can dynamicallyincorporate a portion of a local cache of each client device of a user,and/or a cloud-based cache of the user, that is protected or secured(e.g., encrypted). The secure container can define a portion of filesystem(s), and/or delineate resources allocated to a CEB and/or tonetwork applications accessed via the CEB. The secure container caninclude elements of the secure data container 228 discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2 for example. The CEB can be configured (e.g., viapolicies) to limit, disallow or disable certain actions or activities onresources and/or data identified to be within a secure container. Asecured container can be defined to specify that the resources and/ordata within the secure container are to be monitored for misuse, abuseand/or exfiltration.

In certain embodiments, a secure container relates to or involves theuse of a secure browser (e.g., embedded browser 410 or secure browser420) that implements various enterprise security features. Networkapplications (or web pages accessed by the secure browser) that areconfigured to run within the secure browser can effectively inherit thesecurity mechanisms implemented by the secure browser. These networkapplications can be considered to be contained within the securecontainer. The use of such a secure browser can enable an enterprise toimplement a content filtering policy in which, for example, employeesare blocked from accessing certain web sites from their client devices.The secure browser can be used, for example, to enable client deviceusers to access a corporate intranet without the need for a VPN.

In some embodiments, a secure container can support various types ofremedial actions for protecting enterprise resources. One such remedy isto lock the client device, or a secure container on the client devicethat stores data to be protected, such that the client device or securecontainer can only be unlocked with a valid code provided by anadministrator for instance. In some embodiments, these and other typesof remedies can be invoked automatically based on conditions detected onthe client device (via the application of policies for instance), or canbe remotely initiated by an administrator.

In some embodiments, a secure container can include a secure documentcontainer for documents. A document can comprise any computer-readablefile including text, audio, video, and/or other types of information ormedia. A document can comprise any single one or combination of thesemedia types. As explained herein, the secure container can help preventthe spread of enterprise information to different applications andcomponents of the client device, as well as to other devices. Theenterprise system (which can be partially or entirely within a cloudnetwork) can transmit documents to various devices, which can be storedwithin the secure container. The secure container can preventunauthorized applications and other components of the client device fromaccessing information within the secure container. For enterprises thatallow users to use their own client devices for accessing, storing, andusing enterprise data, providing secure container on the client deviceshelps to secure the enterprise data. For instance, providing securecontainers on the client devices can centralize enterprise data in onelocation on each client device, and can facilitate selective or completedeletion of enterprise data from each client device when desired.

The secure container can include an application that implements a filesystem that stores documents and/or other types of files. The filesystem can comprise a portion of a computer-readable memory of theclient device. The file system can be logically separated from otherportions of the computer-readable memory of the client device. In thisway, enterprise data can be stored in a secure container and privatedata can be stored in a separate portion of the computer-readable memoryof the client device for instance. The secure container can allow theCEB, network applications accessed via the CEB, locally installedapplications and/or other components of the client device to read from,write to, and/or delete information from the file system (if authorizedto do so). Deleting data from the secure container can include deletingactual data stored in the secure container, deleting pointers to datastored in the secure container, deleting encryption keys used to decryptdata stored in the secure container, and the like. The secure containercan be installed by, e.g., the client application, an administrator, orthe client device manufacturer. The secure container can enable some orall of the enterprise data stored in the file system to be deletedwithout modifying private data stored on the client device outside ofthe secure container. The file system can facilitate selective orcomplete deletion of data from the file system. For example, anauthorized component of the enterprise's system can delete data from thefile system based on, e.g., encoded rules. In some embodiments, theclient application can delete the data from the file system, in responseto receiving a deletion command from the enterprise's system.

The secure container can include an access manager that governs accessto the file system by applications and other components of the clientdevice. Access to the file system can be governed based on documentaccess policies (e.g., encoded rules) maintained by the clientapplication, in the documents and/or in the file system. A documentaccess policy can limit access to the file system based on (1) whichapplication or other component of the client device is requestingaccess, (2) which documents are being requested, (3) time or date, (4)geographical position of the client device, (5) whether the requestingapplication or other component provides a correct certificate orcredentials, (6) whether the user of the client device provides correctcredentials, (7) other conditions, or any combination thereof. A user'scredentials can comprise, for example, a password, one or more answersto security questions (e.g., What is the mascot of your high school?),biometric information (e.g., fingerprint scan, eye-scan), and the like.Hence, by using the access manager, the secure container can beconfigured to be accessed only by applications that are authorized toaccess the secure container. As one example, the access manager canenable enterprise applications installed on the client device to accessdata stored in the secure container and to prevent non-enterpriseapplications from accessing the data stored in the secure container.

Temporal and geographic restrictions on document access may be useful.For example, an administrator may deploy a document access policy thatrestricts the availability of the documents (stored within the securecontainer) to a specified time window and/or a geographic zone (e.g., asdetermined by a GPS chip) within which the client device must reside inorder to access the documents. Further, the document access policy caninstruct the secure container or client application to delete thedocuments from the secure container or otherwise make them unavailablewhen the specified time period expires or if the client device is takenoutside of the defined geographic zone.

Some documents can have access policies that forbid the document frombeing saved within the secure container. In such embodiments, thedocument can be available for viewing on the client device only when theuser is logged in or authenticated via the cloud services for example.

The access manager can also be configured to enforce certain modes ofconnectivity between remote devices (e.g., an enterprise resource orother enterprise server) and the secure container. For example, theaccess manager can require that documents received by the securecontainer from a remote device and/or sent from the secure container tothe remote device be transmitted through secured tunnels/connections,for example. The access manager can require that all documentstransmitted to and from the secure container be encrypted. The clientapplication or access manager can be configured to encrypt documentssent from the secure container and decrypt documents sent to the securecontainer. Documents in the secure container can also be stored in anencrypted form.

The secure container can be configured to prevent documents or dataincluded within documents or the secure container from being used byunauthorized applications or components of the client device or otherdevices. For instance, a client device application having authorizationto access documents from the secure container can be programmed toprevent a user from copying a document's data and pasting it intoanother file or application interface, or locally saving the document ordocument data as a new file outside of the secure container. Similarly,the secure container can include a document viewer and/or editor that donot permit such copy/paste and local save operations. Moreover, theaccess manager can be configured to prevent such copy/paste and localsave operations. Further, the secure container and applicationsprogrammed and authorized to access documents from the secure containercan be configured to prevent users from attaching such documents toemails or other forms of communication.

One or more applications (e.g., applications installed on the clientdevice, and/or network applications accessed via the CEB) can beprogrammed or controlled (e.g., via policy-based enforcement) to writeenterprise-related data only into the secure container. For instance, anapplication's source code can be provided with the resource name of thesecure container. Similarly, a remote application (e.g., executing on adevice other than the client device) can be configured to send data ordocuments only to the secure container (as opposed to other componentsor memory locations of the client device). Storing data to the securecontainer can occur automatically, for example, under control of theapplication, the client application, and/or the secure browser. Theclient application can be programmed to encrypt or decrypt documentsstored or to be stored within the secure container. In certainembodiments, the secure container can only be used by applications (onthe client device or a remote device) that are programmed to identifyand use the secure container, and which have authorization to do so.

The network applications 406 can include sanctioned network applications426 and non-sanctioned network applications 428. By way of anon-limiting example, sanctioned network applications 426 can includenetwork applications from Workday, Salesforce, Office 365, SAP, and soon, while non-sanctioned network applications 426 can include networkapplications from Dropbox, Gmail, and so on. For instance, FIG. 4illustrates a case where sanctioned applications 426 are accessed via aCEB. In operation (1), a user instance of a client application 404, thatis installed on client device 402, can register or authenticate with theaccess gateway 422 of cloud services 408. For example, the user canauthenticate the user to the client device and login to the clientdevice 402. The client application can automatically execute, or beactivated by the user. In some embodiments, the user can sign in to theclient application (e.g., by authenticating the user to the clientapplication). In response to the login or sign-in, the clientapplication can register or authenticate the user and/or the clientapplication with the access gateway 422.

In operation (2), in response to the registration or authentication, theaccess gateway 422 can identify or retrieve a list of enumerated networkapplications available or pre-assigned to the user, and can provide thelist to the client application. For example, in response to theregistration or authentication, the access gateway can identify the userand/or retrieve a user profile of the user. According to the identityand/or user profile, the access gateway can determine the list (e.g.,retrieve a stored list of network applications matched with the userprofile and/or the identity of the user). The list can correspond to alist of network applications sanctioned for the user. The access gatewaycan send the list to the client application or embedded browser, whichcan be presented via the client application or embedded browser to theuser (e.g., in a storefront user interface) for selection.

In operation (3), the user can initiate connection to a sanctionednetwork application (e.g., a SaaS application), by selecting from thelist of network applications presented to the user. For example, theuser can click on an icon or other representation of the sanctionednetwork application, displayed via the client application or embeddedbrowser. This user action can trigger the CEB to transmit a connectionor access request to a server that provisions the network application.The request can include a request to the server (e.g., SaaS provider) tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. The servercan send a request to the access gateway to authenticate the user forexample.

In operation (4), the access gateway can perform SSO with the server, toauthenticate the user. For example, in response to the server's requestto authenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials ofthe user to the server(s) 430 for SSO, to access the selected networkapplication and/or other sanctioned network applications. In operation(5), the user can log into the selected network application, based onthe SSO (e.g., using the credentials). The client application (e.g., thenetworking agent 412 and/or the remote session agent 416) can establisha secure connection and session with the server(s) 430 to access theselected network application. The CEB can decrypt application trafficreceived via the secure connection. The CEB can monitor traffic sent viathe CEB and the secured connection to the servers 430.

In operation (6), the client application can provide information to theanalytics services 424 of cloud services 408, for analytics processing.For example, the cloud services agent 414 of the client application 404can monitor for or capture user interaction events with the selectednetwork application. The cloud services agent 414 can convey the userinteraction events to the analytics services 424, to be processed toproduce analytics.

FIG. 5 depicts an example embodiment of a system for using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 4, but that the client application (with embedded browser) is notavailable in the client device 402. A standard or typical browser may beavailable on the client device, from which a user can initiate a requestto access a sanctioned network application for instance. A networkapplication can be specified as being sanctioned or unsanctioned viapolicies that can be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g., viaartificial intelligence).

For example, in operation (1), the user may log into the networkapplication using the standard browser. For accessing a sanctionednetwork application, the user may access a predefined URL and/orcorresponding webpage of a server that provisions the networkapplication, via the standard browser, to initiate a request to accessthe network application. In some embodiments, the request can beforwarded to or intercepted by a designated gateway service (e.g., in adata path of the request). For example, the gateway service can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. In someembodiments, the access gateway can correspond to or include the gatewayservice. The gateway service can determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB. In some embodiments, there is no requirement for adesignated gateway service to detect or determine if the request isinitiated from a CEB, for example if the requested network applicationis sanctioned, that user is initiating the request via a standardbrowser, and/or that the predefined URL and/or corresponding webpage isaccessed.

In operation (2), the server may authenticate the user via the accessgateway of the cloud services 408. The server may communicate with theaccess gateway to authenticate the user, in response to the request. Forinstance, the request can include an indication to the server tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. In someembodiments, the server is pre-configured to communicate with the accessgateway to authenticate the user, for requests to access a sanctionednetwork application. The server may send a request to the access gatewayto authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430.

In operation (3), the gateway service and/or the server can direct (orredirect) all traffic to a secure browser 420 which provides a securebrowsing service. This may be in response to at least one of: adetermination that the requested network application is a sanctionednetwork application, a determination that the request is initiated froma source other than a CEB, a determination that the requested networkapplication is sanctioned, a determination that user is initiating therequest via a standard browser, and/or a determination that thepredefined URL and/or corresponding webpage is accessed.

The user's URL session can be redirected to the secure browser. Forexample, the server, gateway service and/or the access gateway cangenerate and/or send a URL redirect message to the standard browser,responsive to the determination. The secure browser plug-in of thestandard browser can receive the URL redirect message, and can forexample send a request to access the non-sanctioned network application,to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420 can direct the requestto the server of the non-sanctioned network application. The URLredirect message can instruct the standard browser (and/or the securebrowser plug-in) to direct traffic (e.g., destined for the networkapplication) from the standard browser to the secure browser 420 hostedon a network device. This can provide clientless access and control viadynamic routing though a secure browser service. In some embodiments, aredirection of all traffic to the secure browser 420 is initiated orconfigured, prior to performing authentication of the user (e.g., usingSSO) with the server.

In some embodiments, the gateway service can direct or request theserver of the requested network application to communicate with thesecure browser 420. For example, the gateway service can direct theserver and/or the secure browser to establish a secured connectionbetween the server and the secure browser, for establishing anapplication session for the network application.

In some embodiments, the secured browser 420 comprises a browser that ishosted on a network device 432 of the cloud services 408. The securedbrowser 420 can include one or more features of the secured browser 420described above in connection with at least FIG. 4 for instance. Thehosted browser can include an embedded browser of a CEB that is hostedon the network device 432 instead of on the client device. The hostedbrowser can include an embedded browser of a hosted virtualized versionof the CEB that is hosted on the network device 432. Similar to the CEBinstalled on the client device, traffic is routed through the CEB hostedon the network device, which allows an administrator to have visibilityof the traffic through the CEB and to remain in control for securitypolicy control, analytics, and/or management of performance.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example implementation for browser redirectionusing a secure browser plug-in. In brief overview, the implementationincludes a web browser 512 with a secure browser plug-in 516 operatingon a client device, and a hosted web browser (or secure browser) 522residing on a network device. The web browser 512 can correspond to astandard browser, instead of an embedded browser as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 4 for example. The secure browser plug-in 516 canexecute within a first network 510 and access a server 430 in a secondnetwork 530. The first network 510 and the second network 530 are forillustration purposes and may be replaced with fewer or additionalcomputer networks. A secure browser plug-in 516 can be installed on thestandard browser 512. The plug-in can include one or more components.One such component can include an ActiveX control or Java control or anyother type and/or form of executable instructions capable of loadinginto and executing in the standard browser. For example, the standardbrowser can load and run an Active X control of the secure browserplug-in 516, in a memory space or context of the standard browser. Insome embodiments, the secure browser plug-in can be installed as anextension on the standard browser, and a user can choose to enable ordisable the plugin or extension. The secure browser plug-in cancommunicate and/or operate with the secured browser 420 for securing,using and/or accessing resources within the secured portion of thedigital workspace.

By using the secure browser plug-in 516 operating within the standardbrowser 512 network applications accessed via the standard browser 512can be redirected to a hosted secure browser. For instance, the securebrowser plug-in 516 can be implemented and/or designed to detect that anetwork application is being accessed via the standard browser, and candirect/redirect traffic from the client device associated with thenetwork application, to the hosted secure browser. The hosted securebrowser can direct traffic received from the network application, to thesecure browser plug-in 516 and/or a client agent 514 for renderingand/or display for example. The client agent 514 can execute within theweb browser 512 and/or the secure browser plug-in, and can includecertain elements or features of the client application 404 discussedabove in connection with at least FIG. 4 for example. For instance, theclient agent 514 can include a remote session agent 416 for renderingthe network application at the web browser 512. In some embodiments, thenetwork application is rendered at the hosted secure browser, and therendered data is conveyed or mirrored to the secure browser plug-in 516and/or the client agent 514 for processing and/or display.

By way of an example, a user may be working remotely and may want toaccess a network application that is internal to a secure corporatenetwork while the user is working on a computing device connected to anunsecure network. In this case, the user may be utilizing the standardbrowser 512 executing in the first network 510, in which the firstnetwork 510 may comprise an unsecure network. The server 430 that theuser wants to access may be on the second network 530, in which thesecond network 530 comprises a secure corporate network for instance.The user might not be able to access the server 430 from the unsecurefirst network 510 by clicking on an internal uniform record locator(URL) for the secure website 532. That is, the user may need to utilizea different URL (e.g., an external URL) while executing the standardbrowser 512 from the external unsecure network 510. The external URL maybe directed to or may address one or more hosted web browsers 522configured to access server(s) 430 within the second network 530 (e.g.,secure network). To maintain secure access, the secure browser plug-in516 may redirect an internal URL to an external URL for a hosted securebrowser.

The secure browser plug-in 516 may be able to implement networkdetection in order to identify whether or not to redirect internal URLsto external URLs. The standard browser 512 may receive a requestcomprising an internal URL for a website executing within the securenetwork. For example, the standard browser 512 may receive the requestin response to a user entering a web address (e.g., for secure website532) in the standard browser. The secure browser plug-in 516 mayredirect the user web browser application 512 from the internal URL toan external URL for a hosted web browser application. For example, thesecure browser plug-in 516 may replace the internal URL with an externalURL for the hosted web browser application 522 executing within thesecure network 530.

The secure browser plug-in 516 may allow the client agent 514 to beconnected to the hosted web browser application 522. The client agent514 may comprise a plug-in component, such as an ActiveX control or Javacontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the standard browser 512. For example,the client agent 514 may comprise an ActiveX control loaded and run by astandard browser 512, such as in the memory space or context of the userweb browser application 512. The client agent 514 may be pre-configuredto present the content of the hosted web browser application 522 withinthe user web browser application 512.

The client agent 514 may connect to a server or the cloud/hosted webbrowser service 520 using a thin-client or remote-display protocol topresent display output generated by the hosted web browser application522 executing on the service 520. The thin-client or remote-displayprotocol can be any one of the following non-exhaustive list ofprotocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocoldeveloped by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the RemoteDesktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.

The hosted web browser application 522 may navigate to the requestednetwork application in full-screen mode, and can render the requestednetwork application. The client agent 514 may present the content orrendition of the network application on the web browser application 512in a seamless and transparent manner such that it appears that thecontent is being displayed by the standard browser 512, e.g., based onthe content being displayed in full screen mode. In other words, theuser may be given the impression that the web site content is displayedby the user web browser application 512 and not by the hosted webbrowser application 522. The client agent 514 may transmit navigationcommands generated by the user web browser application 512 to the hostedweb browser application 522 using the thin-client or remote-displayprotocol. Changes to the display output of the hosted web browserapplication 522, due to the navigation commands, may be reflected in theuser web browser application 512 by the client agent 514, giving theimpression to the user that the navigation commands were executed by theuser web browser application 512.

Referring again to FIG. 5, and in operation (4), a new browser tab canopen on the standard browser, to render or display the secure browsersession. The new browser tab can be established or opened by the securebrowser plug-in for instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a clientagent can receive data from the secure browser session, and can renderthe network application within the new browser tab as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

FIG. 7 depicts another example embodiment of a system of using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and the client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 5. A client application with embedded browser is not available inthe client device 402. A standard or typical (e.g., HTML5) browser isavailable on the client device, from which a user can initiate a requestto access a non-sanctioned network application. A network applicationcan be specified as being sanctioned or non-sanctioned via policies thatcan be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g., via artificialintelligence).

In operation (1), the user may attempt to log into a non-sanctionednetwork application using the standard browser. The user may attempt toaccess a webpage of a server that provisions the network application,and to initiate a request to access the network application. In someembodiments, the request can be forwarded to or intercepted by adesignated gateway service (e.g., in a data path of the request). Forexample, the gateway service (sometimes referred to as SWG) can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. The gatewayservice can detect or otherwise determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB.

In operation (2), the gateway service detects that the requested networkapplication is a non-sanctioned network application. The gateway servicecan for instance extract information from the request (e.g., destinationaddress, name of the requested network application), and compare theinformation against that from a database of sanctioned and/ornon-sanctioned network applications. The gateway service can determine,based on the comparison, that the requested network application is anon-sanctioned network application.

In operation (3), responsive to the determination, the gateway servicecan block access to the requested network application, e.g., by blockingthe request. The gateway service can generate and/or send a URL redirectmessage to the standard browser, responsive to the determination. TheURL redirect message can be similar to a URL redirect message sent fromthe server to the standard browser in FIG. 5 in operation (3). A securebrowser plug-in of the standard browser can receive the URL redirectmessage, and can for example send a request to access the non-sanctionednetwork application, to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420can direct the request to the server of the non-sanctioned networkapplication.

The server of the non-sanctioned network application may authenticatethe user via the access gateway of the cloud services 408, e.g.,responsive to receiving the request from the secure browser. The servermay communicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user, inresponse to the request. The server may send a request to the accessgateway to authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430. Upon authentication, the secure browser (or acorresponding CEB) can establish a secured connection and an applicationsession with the server.

In operation (4), a new browser tab can open on the standard browser, torender or display the secure browser's application session. The newbrowser tab can be established or opened by the secure browser plug-infor instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a client agent canreceive data from the secure browser session, and can render the networkapplication within the new browser tab as discussed above in connectionwith FIGS. 5-6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

In some embodiments, in the absence or non-availability of a CEB on theclient device, browser redirection is performed so that each requestednetwork application is accessed via a corresponding hosted securebrowser (or hosted CEB) for handling, instead of having all trafficredirected through a single hosted secure browser (or hosted CEB). Eachdedicated secure browser can provide compartmentalization and improvedsecurity.

The use of a CEB, whether hosted or local to the client device, canallow for end-to-end visibility of application traffic for analytics,service level agreement (SLA), resource utilization, audit, and so on.In addition to such visibility, the CEB can be configured with policiesfor managing and controlling any of these as well as other aspects. Forexample, DLP features can be supported, to control “copy and paste”activities, download of files, sharing of files, and to implementwatermarking for instance. As another example, the CEB can be configuredwith policies for managing and controlling access to local drives and/ordevice resources such as peripherals.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s) is depicted. Anenvironment is shown where different types of client devices 402A, 402Bmay be used (e.g., in a BYOD context), such that one may be locallyequipped with a suitable CEB, and another client device may not have asuitable local CEB installed. In such an environment, systems describedin FIGS. 4, 5 and 7 can be used to support each of the client devicesbased on the availability of a locally installed and suitable CEB.

FIG. 9 depicts an example process flow for using local embeddedbrowser(s) and hosted secured browser(s). The process flow can be usedin the environment described above in FIG. 8, to determine whether anembedded browser or a hosted secured browser should be used for eachclient device to access a network application. For example, in operation901, a HTTP client can attempt to access a web service (e.g., server ofa network application). In operation 903, the web service can redirectthe HTTP client to a gateway service for authentication. In operation905, the gateway service can determine if the HTTP client is a CEB. Ifso, in operation 909, the gateway service can determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB, e.g., capable of enforcing defined application policies.If so, in operation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service,and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is not a CEB, thegateway service can cause a virtualized version of a CEB to beinitialized and hosted on a remote server (e.g., a network device 432 ofcloud services 408), in operation 907. In some embodiments, such ahosted CEB may already be available on a network device 432, and can beselected for use. For example in operation 911, the CEB is allowedaccess to the web service, and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is a CEB, butthat the CEB is not a suitable CEB, the gateway service can cause avirtualized version of a CEB to be initialized and hosted on a remoteserver (e.g., a network device 432 of cloud services 408), in operation907. In some embodiments, such a hosted CEB may already be available ona network device 432, and can be selected for use. For example inoperation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service, and canenforce the defined policies.

In some embodiments, if the user is requesting access to a webapplication located in a company data center, the gateway service (incloud service or on premise) can allow access when the clientapplication with CEB is detected. Otherwise, the request can be routedto a service with the hosted virtualized version of the CEB, and thenaccess is authenticated and granted.

At operation 905 and/or operation 909 for instance, the decisions madeon whether the HTTP client is a CEB and whether it is a suitable CEB maybe determined by a number of factors. For example, to determine if theHTTP client is CEB, the gateway service may take into account factors,for example including at least one of: user Identity and strength ofauthentication, client Location, client IP Address, how trusted the useridentity, client location, client IP are, jailbreak status of the clientdevice, status of anti-malware software, compliance to corporate policyof the client device, and/or remote attestation or other evidence ofintegrity of the client software.

To determine if the CEB is able to honor or support all definedapplication policies (which may vary by client version, client OSplatform and other factors), the client device's software and gatewayservice may perform capability negotiation and/or exchange versioninformation. In some embodiments, the gateway service can query or checka version number or identifier of the CEB to determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB to use.

Driving all the traffic though the CEB then allows additional control ofcontent accessing SaaS and Web based systems. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)of SaaS and Web traffic can be applied through the CEB app with featuresincluding copy and paste control to other CEB access applications or ITmanaged devices. DLP can also be enforced by enabling content to bedownloaded only to designated file servers or services under IT control.

Referring now to FIG. 10, depicted is an example embodiment of a systemfor managing user access to webpages. Some webpages (or websites) areknown to be safe while others may be suspect. A user may access awebpage via a corresponding URL through a standard browser. For example,the user may click on a link corresponding to the URL, which may beincluded in an email being viewed using a mail application. An accessgateway (SWG) may intercept an access request generated by the clickingof the link, and can determine if the corresponding URL is safe orsuspect. If the URL is known to be safe, the access gateway can allowthe request to proceed to the corresponding website or web server. Ifthe URL is suspect, the access gateway can redirect the request to behandled via a hosted secure browser. The secure browser can requestaccess for, and access the webpage (on behalf of the standard browser),and can allow the webpage information to be conveyed to the standardbrowser, similar to the handling of a network application via browserredirection as discussed in connection with at least FIGS. 7 and 5.

C. Systems and Methods for Sharing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ContentAcross Workspace

A client application executing on a client device can allow a user toaccess applications (apps) that are served from and/or hosted on one ormore servers, such as web applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS)applications (hereafter sometimes generally referred to as networkapplications). A browser that is embedded or integrated with the clientapplication can render to the user a network application that isaccessed or requested via the client application, and can enableinteractivity between the user and the network application. The browseris sometimes referred to as an embedded browser, and the clientapplication with embedded browser (CEB) is sometimes referred to as aworkspace application. The client application can establish a secureconnection to the one or more servers to provide an application sessionfor the user to access the network application using the client deviceand the embedded browser. The embedded browser can be integrated withthe client application to ensure that traffic related to the networkapplication is routed through and/or processed in the clientapplication, which can provide the client application with real-timevisibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through the clientapplication), and user interactions and behavior. The embedded browsercan provide a seamless experience to a user as the network applicationis requested via the user interface (shared by the client applicationand the embedded browser) and rendered through the embedded browserwithin the same user interface.

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods forsharing content from a plurality of network applications using anembedded browser. With the increasing use of the network applications(e.g., web applications and SaaS applications), the SaaS container, forexample a client application with an embedded browser, becomes thecurator of all content fragments inputted into the network applications.These content fragments can include text as well as rich content, suchas images, audio, video, attachments, etc. For example, in a case wherea SaaS application is specifically designed for documents (e.g.,ShareFile), the scope of the curation can include all content stored inthe document management SaaS application as well.

Systems and methods described herein allow content from a plurality ofnetwork applications to be reused through a client application and anembedded browser. For example, systems and methods described herein canallow content from different network applications to be curated withinthe SaaS container, intelligently organized (e.g., using predictivemachine learning), and available for reuse and reference acrossapplications. Furthermore, when multiple users working towards a jointcollaborative goal (e.g., filling a SaaS form), systems and methodsdescribed herein allow content curated and shared across each of theusers to be accessed collectively in one place so that content can bereferenced and reused for the collaborated tasks. For example, systemsand methods described herein can allow contacts, documents, files, etc.shared by each of the collaborators to be available to allcollaborators.

The present disclosure is further directed towards systems and methodsfor providing rich content for input fields of applications (e.g.,network applications, such as web applications and SaaS applications)that do not support rich content input without requiring anymodification of the applications or cooperation from the applicationvendors. In some embodiments, a SaaS application text field can supporttext or sometimes formatted text (e.g., bold, italic, bulleted), but notrich content (e.g., images, audio, video, attachments, formatting,schedules/appointments, business cards). With the widespread use of richcontent in the Internet age, it is oftentimes desirable and sometimesrequired to associate more richer information with the text field. Forexample, if a text field takes “name” as input, a user might wish toattach a contact vCard (virtual contact file) with it. Under somecircumstances, for instance, users may want to attach an image or screenshot (e.g., a receipt), a file (e.g., a PDF of a purchase order), anaudio memo, or a video to the text field to help themselves with respectto the information they fill there. As another example, a user may wantto input rich content such as stickers, emojis, animated smileys into atext field of a network application.

Systems and methods as described herein allow rich content input intofields of network applications that are originally designed to acceptonly simple text or formatted text by using a SaaS container (e.g., aclient application with an embedded browser) with a specially formattedtoken which associates the rich content with the input field. When anetwork application is accessed or utilized at a client device, aspecially formatted token is added to the text field which does notaccept rich content input. The token is configured to point to theactual rich content associated with the text field and is replaced withthe actual rich content at display time when being viewed through theSaaS container or lens, in some embodiments. In some embodiments, theassociation of the token and the rich content is stored in a securedSaaS or other repositories. In some embodiments, the rich content can beencoded into a text blob (e.g., using base64 encoding) and stored alongwith the text field. In some embodiments, the SaaS container provides auser interface for entering the rich content, for example, allowingdrag-and-drop of a file into the field or taking a photo via the devicecamera, etc.

Referring to FIG. 11, depicted is a block diagram of one embodiment of asystem 1100 for sharing content across a plurality of applications. Thesystem 1100 may include a plurality of client devices 1102, 1112 eachincludes a client application 1104, 1114 and a storage 1110, 1120, amongother components. In some embodiments, the client applications 1104,1114 each includes an embedded browser 1106, 1116, and one or more richcontent user interfaces 1108, 1118 (e.g., rich content user interfaces1108 a, . . . , 1108 n; 1118 a, . . . , 1118 n). The system 1100 mayalso include a plurality of network applications 1160, 1170, 1180, eachincludes a user interface (e.g., user interfaces 1162, 1172, 1182), anda storage service 1190. In some embodiments, the client applications1104, 1114 can communicate with the network applications 1160, 1170,1180 and storage device 1190 via the network 1130.

Each of the client devices 1102, 1112 may be an instance of any clientdevice described herein. For example, the client devices 1102, 1112 maybe the same as or substantially similar to client device 202, 204described above with respect to FIG. 2, client device 302 describedabove with respect to FIG. 3, and/or client device 402 a described abovewith respect to FIG. 4. The client applications 1104, 1114 may be aninstance of any client application described herein. For example, theclient applications 1104, 1114 may be the same as or substantiallysimilar to client application 404 of FIG. 4. The client applications1104, 1114 with the respective embedded browsers 1106, 1116 (CEB) caninclude any element of a CEB as described herein. For example, theembedded browsers 1106, 1116 may be the same as or substantially similarto embedded browser 410 described above with respect to FIG. 4. Theembedded browsers 1106, 1116 can include elements and functionalities ofa web browser application or engine. The embedded browsers 1106, 1116each can locally render one or more of network application 1160, 1170,1180 as a component or extension of the client applications 1104, 1114.For example, the embedded browsers 1106, 1116 can each render a SaaS/Webapplication inside the CEB which can provide the CEB with fullvisibility and control of an application session 1140 a, 1150 a. Therich content user interfaces 1108 a-n, 1118 a-n can be configured tooverlay the respective user interfaces (e.g., 1160, 1170, 1180) of thenetwork applications 1-n and accept rich content input. The storage 1190can include one or more memory units that are the same as orsubstantially similar to memory 122 and/or memory 128 described abovewith respect to FIG. 1 and can be configured to store information anddata used by the client devices 1102, 1112.

The client applications 1104, 1114 each can establish one or more ofsessions 1140 a-1140 n, 1150 a-1150 n to one or more of the networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180 for the client devices 1102, 1112respectively through the respective embedded browsers 1106, 1116. Thesessions 1140 a-1140 n, 1150 a-1150 n can include any type or form of asession as described herein. For example, sessions 1140 a-1140 n, 1150a-1150 n can include, but are not limited to, an application session, anexecution session, a desktop sessions, a hosted desktop session, aterminal services session, a browser session, a remote desktop session,and a remote application session. Sessions 1140 a-1140 n, 1150 a-1150 ncan include encrypted and/or secure sessions established between thenetwork application 1160, 1170, or 1180 and the client device 1102 or1112.

The network applications 1160, 1170, 1180 can include any type or formof network application detailed herein. For example, the networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180 can be the same as or substantiallysimilar to network application 406 described above with respect to FIG.4. The network applications 1160, 1170, 1180 can include applications(apps) that are served from and/or hosted on one or more servers, suchas but not limited to, web applications, software-as-a-service (SaaS)applications, and/or remote-hosted applications. The networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180 can include an application hosted on aserver accessed by the client devices 1102, 1112 via the network 104. Insome embodiments, the network applications 1160, 1170, 1180 each caninclude a user interface 1162, 1172, 1182 which can be rendered by theembedded browsers 1106, 1116 at the client devices 1102, 1112.

The storage service 1190 can include one or more content repositories ordatabases configured to store information and data in the system 1100.In some embodiments, the storage service 1190 can be local to the clientdevices 1102, 1112. In some embodiments, the storage service 1190 can beremote to the client devices 1102, 1112 and communicate with the clientdevices 1102, 1112 via the network 1130. In some embodiments, thestorage service 1190 can be a cloud storage including a plurality ofservers in one or more locations.

The network 1130 can be a public network, such as a wide area network(WAN) or the Internet. In some embodiments, network 1130 may be aprivate network such as a local area network (LAN) or a companyIntranet. Network 1130 may employ one or more types of physical networksand/or network topologies, such as wired and/or wireless networks, andmay employ one or more communication transport protocols, such astransmission control protocol (TCP), internet protocol (IP), userdatagram protocol (UDP) or other similar protocols.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the client applications 1104, 1114 may beimplemented using hardware or a combination of hardware or softwaredetailed above in connection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of theseelements or entities can include any application, program, library,script, task, service, process or any type and form of executableinstructions executing on hardware of a client device (e.g., the clientapplication 1104, 1114). The hardware includes circuitry such as one ormore processors in one or more embodiments.

Referring now to FIG. 12, an example embodiment of an embedded browser1106 displaying a user interface 1162 of a network application 1160 isshown. As shown, the user interface 1162 can include a plurality of textfields 1202, 1204 and 1206 each configured to allow a user to entertext. For example, the description field 1206 allows a user to enterplain text and may also allow simple formatting of the text using thetool bar 1208. However, in some embodiments, the user interface 1162 ofthe network application 1160 does not allow entry of rich content, suchas images, audio, video, attachments, formatting,schedules/appointments, and business cards, etc. On the other hand, auser may want to use rich content as input to one or more of the textfields. FIGS. 13 and 14 illustrate a solution to this challenge.

Referring now to FIG. 13, a flow diagram of an example embodiment of amethod 1300 for providing rich content for an input field of a networkapplication through an embedded browser is shown. The functionalities ofthe method may be implemented using, or performed by, the componentsdetailed herein in connection with FIGS. 1-11. In brief overview, themethod includes establishing, by a first client application, for a firstuser of a first entity, a first session to a network application of asecond entity via a first embedded browser within the first clientapplication (operation 1302). The method includes displaying, by thefirst embedded browser, an input field of a first user interface of thenetwork application, the input field accepting text input (operation1304). The method includes determining if the first user interface iscapable of accepting rich content input in the input field (operation1306). The method includes receiving, by the first client application,at least for display via the first user interface rich content as inputfor the input field, responsive to determining that the first userinterface is capable of accepting rich content input in the input field(operation 1308). The method includes providing, by the first clientapplication, a second user interface that allows entering of richcontent in association with the input field, responsive to determiningthat the first user interface is not capable of accepting rich contentinput in the input field (operation 1310). The method includesreceiving, by the first client application, at least for display via thesecond user interface rich content as input for the input field(operation 1312). The method includes storing, by the first clientapplication, a token in data of the input field of the first userinterface to identify that the input field is associated with richcontent (operation 1314). The method includes storing, by the firstclient application, the token associated with the rich content to a datastorage service (operation 1316).

Referring now to operation 1302, and in some embodiments, a first clientapplication can establish, for a first user of a first entity, a firstsession to a network application of a second entity via a first embeddedbrowser within the first client application. For example, the firstclient application can be the client application 1104 in FIG. 11 and thefirst embedded browser can be the embedded browser 1106 in FIG. 11. Forinstance, the first user can be a user who operates the client device1102 in FIG. 11 and the network application can be the networkapplication 1160 in FIG. 11. In some embodiments, the first user whooperates the client device 1102 is associated with a first entity andthe network application is associated with a second entity which is adifferent entity from the first entity. In some embodiments, an entitycan be an individual (e.g., the first user himself/herself) or anorganization (e.g., a company, a corporation, a partnership, etc.). Insome embodiments, the client application 1102 can establish a firstsession 1140 a to the network application 1160 through the embeddedbrowser 1106 which can enable or provide interactivity between the firstuser of the client device 1102 and the network application 1160. Forexample, the client application 1104 can establish a secure connectionto a server that hosts the network application 1160 to provide anapplication session for the first user of the client device 1102 toaccess the network application 1160 using the client device 1102 and theembedded browser 1106.

Referring now to operation 1304, and in some embodiments, the firstembedded browser 1106 can display an input field of a first userinterface of the network application 1160. The input field of the firstuser interface can accept text input. For example, the first userinterface can be the user interface 1162 of the network application 1160as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, and the input field can be one of the textinput fields 1202, 1204 and 1206 as shown in FIG. 12. In someembodiments, the input fields can accept only one of simple text orformatted text. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the user interface1162 can allow the text entered into the text field 1206 to be formattedas bolded text, italic text, or underlined text using the tool bar 1208.However, in some embodiments, the user interface 1162 of the networkapplication 1160 does not allow entry of rich content, such as images,audio, video, attachments, formatting, schedules/appointments, andbusiness cards, etc. that a user may prefer to use as input.

Referring now to operation 1306, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application 1104 can determine whether the first user interface1162 is capable of accepting (or configured to accept) rich contentinput in the input field. For example, the first client application cancheck the version of the first user interface 1162 and/or the networkapplication 1160 to determine if the first user interface 1162 iscapable of accepting rich content input in the input field. In someembodiments, version information of user interfaces and/or networkapplications are stored in the storage 1110 of the client device 1102 orthe storage service 1190. The first client application 1104 can comparethe version of the first user interface 1162 and/or the networkapplication 1160 with the version information stored in the storage 1110of the client device 1102 or the storage service 1190 to determine ifthe first user interface 1162 is capable of accepting rich content inputin the input field. In some embodiments, based on the result of thedetermination, the first client application 1104 can proceed to performoperation 1308 or operation 1310.

Referring now to operation 1308, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application can receive, via the first user interface, the richcontent as input for the input field, responsive to determination atoperation 1306 that the first user interface is capable of acceptingrich content input in the input field. For example, the clientapplication 1102 can receive, via the network application user interface1162, the rich content as input for the input field when it isdetermined that the network application user interface 1162 is capableof accepting rich content input in the input field. In some embodiments,the rich content includes a video, an audio, an image, a document, asticker, an emoji, and an animation.

Referring now to operation 1310, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application can provide a second user interface that allowsentering of rich content in association with the input field, responsiveto the determination at operation 1306 that the first user interface isnot capable of accepting (or configured to accept) rich content input inthe input field determined in operation 1306. For example, the seconduser interface can be the rich content user interface 1108 a in FIG. 11.In some embodiments, the first client application 1104 can generate auser interface (e.g., the second user interface such as rich contentuser interface 1108 a) in response to that the first user interface isnot capable of accepting (or configured to accept) rich content asinput. In some embodiments, the second user interface may have alreadybeen generated and stored in the storage 1110 of the client device 1102or the storage service 1190. For example, a second user interfacecorresponding to the first user interface may be generated previouslywhen the first user interface was accessed or executed at the clientdevice, and then stored in the storage 1110 of the client device 1102 orthe storage service 1190 for future reuse. In some embodiments, therespective first user interfaces (e.g., 1162, 1172, 1182) of differentnetwork applications (e.g., 1160, 1170, 1180) may have differentcorresponding second user interface (e.g., 1108 a, 1108 b, 1108 n)because the user interfaces of different network applications aredifferent from each other.

In some embodiments, the second user interface includes an overlay tothe first user interface displayed within the first embedded browser. Insome embodiments, the overlay can be overlay content that is displayedon top of the first user interface of the network application. Forexample, the overlay content may provide rich content, such as such asan image, an audio, a video, a document, a sticker, an emoji, ananimation, a schedule/appointment, a business card, etc. In someembodiments, the overlay is configured to be at least partiallytransparent. For example, the portions of the second user interface thatare not input fields may be configured to be transparent to allow thecorresponding portions of the first user interface to be visible. Insome embodiments, graphical indicators or representations of the richcontent can be displayed on the second user interface. One examplesecond user interface displayed within an embedded browser isillustrated in FIG. 14.

Referring now to FIG. 14, an example embodiment of an embedded browser1106 displaying a rich content user interface 1108 a overlaying a userinterface 1162 of a network application 1160 is shown. As shown in FIG.14, the rich content user interface 1108 a (the second user interface)has a similar look and feel as the network application user interface1162 (the first user interface) so that it may seem to users that theyare using the user interface 1162 of the network application 1160. Insome embodiments, the portions of the rich content user interface 1108 athat are not associated with the input fields for accepting rich contentmay be transparent. As shown in FIG. 14, the description field 1206 canaccept rich content, such as an audio memo 1210 which memorizes theuser's visit to the Yosemite National Park. In FIG. 14, the tool bar1208 includes additional graphical indicators or representations of therich content, such as a smiley face, an attachment symbol, and a web camsymbol that upon clicking, allowing the user to select respective richcontent for inputting into the input fields. For example, clicking onthe web cam symbol may allow a user to take a photo using a web cam ofthe client device 1102. In some embodiments, the second user interfacecan also allow dragging and dropping a file into the input field. In theexample user interface as shown in FIG. 14, the audio memo 1210 in thefield 1206 and a smiley face, an attachment symbol, and a web cam symbolin the tool bar 1208 can be overlay content that overlay on top of thenetwork application user interface 1162 (the first user interface). Itshould be understood that the example user interface as shown in FIG. 14is for illustrative purposes only and should not be regarded as limitingin any way. For example, different rich content can be entered (e.g.,dragging and dropping a file) into the field 1206, and the tool bar 1208can have more, less, and/or different graphical indicators and/orrepresentations of rich content.

Referring now to operation 1312 in FIG. 13, and in some embodiments, thefirst client application can receive at least for display, via thesecond user interface, rich content as input for the input field. Forexample, the user interface 1162 of the network application 1160 can beconfigured to receive, via the rich content user interface 1108 a, richcontent as input for the input field. Referring again to FIG. 14, as canbe seen, an audio memo 1210 is inputted into the description field 1206as input and displayed within the embedded browser 1106. As anotherexample, a user may drag and drop a file into the description field 1206instead of entering the text manually. In some embodiments, the filethat is dragged and dropped may be appeared in the field 1206 as a fileattachment. In some embodiments, the content of the file itself may bedisplayed in the field 1206 as if the user has entered the contentmanually. In some embodiments, text can be received as input to theinput field, and the text can be entered and displayed in the inputfield on the first user interface. For example, in FIG. 14, text can beentered in the date field 1202 of the network application user interface1162, rather than via the rich content user interface 1108 a (the seconduser interface).

Referring now to operation 1314 in FIG. 13, and in some embodiments, thefirst client application can store a token in data of the input field ofthe first user interface to identify that the input field is associatedwith rich content. In some embodiments, when rich content is enteredinto the input field via the second user interface, the first clientapplication generates a specially formatted token. For example, when theaudio memo 1210 is entered into the description field 1206 in FIG. 14,the first client application 1104 generates a specially formatted tokenfor the audio memo 1210. In some embodiments, the token can be formattedas an alphanumeric identifier, for example using the Base64 encodingscheme. In other embodiments, other encoding schemes (e.g., Base32) maybe used. In some embodiments, the first client application 1104 cangenerate the token using a random number generator. In some embodiments,the first client application 1104 can generate the token using a hashfunction. In some embodiments, the generated token is stored in data ofthe input field of the first user interface. For example, the tokengenerated for the audio memo 1210 in FIG. 14 can be stored among dataassociated with the description field 1206 of the first user interface1162 to identify that the description field 1206 is associated with theaudio memo. For instance, the token generated for the audio memo 1210can be stored together with an indication of the description field 1206to identify the association between the description field 1206 and theaudio memo.

Referring now to operation 1316 in FIG. 13, and in some embodiments, thefirst client application can store the token associated with the richcontent to a data storage service. For example, the client application1104 can be configured to store the generated token into the datastorage service 1190. The data storage service 1190 can be either localor remote to the client device 1102 which hosts the client application1104. When the data storage service 1190 is remote to the client device1102, the client device 1102 can communicate with the data storageservice 1190 via the network 1130. In some embodiments, the token can bestored in the storage 1110 of the client device 1102. In someembodiments, the token is stored together with the identifier of theinput field in the data storage service 1190 or the storage 1110. Insome embodiments, the token is stored together with the rich content inthe data storage service 1190 or the storage 1110. In some embodiments,the token is stored together with both the identifier of the input fieldand the rich content in the data storage service 1190 or the storage1110.

In some embodiments, the first client application or a second clientapplication of another client device can access the content of thenetwork application including the input field and can detect the tokenin data of the input field. In some embodiments, when the first clientapplication or the second client application detects the token in dataof the input field, the first client application or the second clientapplication can determine that the input field is associated with richcontent. In some embodiments, the first client application or the secondclient application can display the rich content associated with theinput field in the first embedded browser of the first clientapplication or a second embedded browser of the second clientapplication via the second user interface. For example, at display time,the client application can identify the token based on the input fieldand replace the token with the actual rich content pointed to by thetoken.

Referring now to FIG. 15, a flow diagram of an example embodiment of amethod 1500 for sharing content across a plurality of networkapplications is shown. The functionalities of the method may beimplemented using, or performed by, the components detailed herein inconnection with FIGS. 1-11. In brief overview, the method includesestablishing, by a first client application, a plurality of sessionswith a plurality of network applications via a first embedded browserwithin the first client application (operation 1502). The methodincludes identifying, by the first client application, a plurality ofcontent provided as input to each of the plurality of networkapplications (operation 1504). The method includes storing, by the firstclient application, the plurality of content to storage (operation1506). The method includes determining, by the first client application,whether a point in a first user interface of a first network applicationin which input from content of the plurality of content is available asinput (operation 1508). The method includes providing, via the firstembedded browser, a second user interface from which to select at leasta first content of the plurality of content stored in storage from asecond network application of the plurality of network applications asinput to the first user interface of the first network application,responsive to the determination that a point in the first user interfaceof the first network application in which input from content of theplurality of content is available as input (operation 1510). The methodincludes receiving, via the first embedded browser, as input to thefirst user interface of the first network application the selection viathe second user interface of the first content of the plurality ofcontent stored in storage from the second network application (operation1512). The method includes receiving, via the first embedded browser,content as input to the first user interface via the first userinterface, responsive to the determination that a point in the firstuser interface of the first network application in which input fromcontent of the plurality of content is not available as input.(operation 1514).

Referring now to operation 1502, and in some embodiments, a first clientapplication can establish a plurality of sessions with a plurality ofnetwork applications via a first embedded browser within the firstclient application. For example, the client application 1104 canestablish a plurality of sessions 1140 a, 1140 b, and 1140 n with aplurality of network applications 1160, 1170 and 1180 via the firstembedded browser 1106 within the client application 1104. In someembodiments, each of the plurality of network applications is executedon one or more servers operated by different entities from the othernetwork application of the plurality of network applications. Forexample, the network application 1160 may be executed on one or moreservers operated by a first entity and the network application 1170 maybe executed on one or more servers operated by a second entity that isdifferent from the first entity. In some embodiments, the sessions 1140a-1140 n can include any type or form of a session as described herein.For example, the client application 1104 can establish a secureconnection to a server that hosts the network application 1160 toprovide an application session for the client device 1102 to access thenetwork application 1160 using the client device 1102 and the embeddedbrowser 1106.

Referring now to operation 1504, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application can identify a plurality of content provided as inputto each of the plurality of network applications. For example, theclient application 1104 can identify a plurality of content provided asinput to each of the plurality of network applications 1160, 1170, 1180.In some embodiments, the first client application can identify each ofthe plurality of content as a user accesses and inputs content to eachof the plurality of network applications within the embedded browser.For example, each time a network application 1160, 1170, 1180 isaccessed at the client device 1102, the client application 1104identifies the content inputted into the input fields of the userinterface of the network application. For instance, the clientapplication 1104 can categorize the content inputted into the inputfields of the user interface of the network application. In someembodiments, the plurality of content includes one or more of portionsof text, an attachment, an image, a file, a document, contactinformation, and clipboard or copied data.

In some embodiments, the first client application identifies each of theplurality of content responsive to or based on a polity of the clientapplication. In some embodiments, the polity specifies a type ofcontent. For example, the type of content can be simple text, formattedtext, or rich content such as video, audio, image, document, sticker,emoji, an animation, etc. In some embodiments, the content can befurther categorized into sub-types. For example, a document can becategorized as a Portable Document Format (PDF) document, a Worddocument, a spreadsheet document, etc. In some embodiments, the firstclient application identifies each of the plurality of contentresponsive to or based on a set of rules. In some embodiments, the setof rules may be based on machine learning or predictive machinelearning. For example, if a user at the client device 1102 enters intoan input field of the user interface 1162 of the network application1160 a description of a meeting, the client application 1104 canidentify the meeting minutes that may be reused based on historicalpattern or behavior. For example, if similar meeting minutes in the pastare frequently accessed or reused by the same network application orother network applications, the client application 1104 can identifythis content as likely to be accessed or reused later.

Referring now to operation 1506, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application can store the plurality of content to storage. Forexample, the client application 1104 can store the plurality of contentidentified at operation 1504 to storage. In some embodiments, the firstclient application stores the plurality of content to storage on one ofa client device of the first client application or one or more servers.For example, the first client application 1104 can store the pluralityof content to the storage 1110 of the client device 1102 or the storageservice 1190. In some embodiments, the first client applicationorganizes the plurality of content stored in the storage into one ormore categories of a plurality of categories by applying machinelearning. For example, the client application 1104 or the storageservice 1190 can analyze the content stored in the storage, extract keyconcepts, patterns, and relationship from the content, apply machinelearning and pattern match techniques to the content, and categorize thecontent into one or more categories of a plurality of categories.

Referring now to operation 1508, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application determines whether a point in a first user interfaceof a first network application in which input from content of theplurality of content is available as input. For example, the clientapplication 1104 can determine if a point in the user interface 1162 ofthe network application 1160 in which input from content of theplurality of content stored in operation 1506 is available as input. Insome embodiments, the point can be an input element such as an inputfield in the user interface. For example, the point can be an inputfield in the user interface 1162 of the network application 1160 thataccepts text input or rich content input. In some embodiments, the firstclient application can determine that the point (e.g., an input element,input field) can accept a type of content that is stored in the storage.For example, the client application 1104 can determine the types ofcontent that an input element in the user interface 1162 accepts andthen determine if those types of content is available in the storage.For instance, if an input element accepts PDF documents but not Worddocuments, the client application 1104 can determine if relevant PDFdocuments are stored in the storage. In some embodiments, the candidatecontent for the point in the first user interface is limited to theplurality of content identified in operation 1504 because those contentcan be shared among the network applications used by the client device1102. In some embodiments, based on the result of the determination, thefirst client application 1104 can proceed to perform operation 1510 oroperation 1514.

Referring now to operation 1510, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application provides, via the first embedded browser, a seconduser interface from which to select at least a first content of theplurality of content stored in storage from a second network applicationof the plurality of network applications as input to the first userinterface of the first network application, responsive to thedetermination in operation 1508 that a point in the first user interfaceof the first network application in which input from content of theplurality of content is available as input. For example, the clientapplication 1104 can provide a second user interface (e.g., userinterface 1172 or rich content user interface 1108 b) associated with asecond network application 1170. Continuing with this example, from thesecond user interface, a first content of the plurality of contentstored in storage can be selected as input to the first user interface(e.g., user interface 1162 or rich content user interface 1108 a)associated with the first network application 1160. FIG. 16 illustratesa first user interface and a second user interface for sharing content,in some embodiments.

Referring now to FIG. 16, a block diagram of an example embodiment of asystem 1600 for sharing content across a plurality of networkapplications is shown. As shown in FIG. 16, a first user interface 1602and a second user interface 1604 are displayed within the embeddedbrowser 1106 of the client device 1102. For example, the first userinterface 1602 can be the user interface 1162 of the network application1160, and the second user interface 1604 can be the rich content userinterface 1108 b associated with the network application 1170 when theuser interface 1172 does not support rich content input (as describedherein above in relation to FIGS. 12-14). As shown in FIG. 16, the firstuser interface 1602 for the first network application can include a datefield 1610, a task field 1612, and an upload field 1614, each configuredto accept input. The second user interface 1604 for the second networkapplication can include a name field 1620 and a result field 1622, eachconfigured to accept input. In the example of FIG. 16, when a userwishes to upload a document to the field 1614 of the first userinterface 1602, the client application 1104 can provide the second userinterface 1604 for selecting content for the first user interface 1602.For instance, as shown in FIG. 16, from the second user interface 1604,a document 1624 (first content) among a plurality of content stored instorage can be selected as input to the upload field 1614 of the firstuser interface 1602. Thus, the document 1624 can be shared between thefirst network application and the second network in this example.

In some embodiments, the second user interface 1604 can comprise anoverlay for displaying the first content 1624 as selectable and provideas input to the first user interface 1602. For example, the second userinterface 1604 can comprise the rich content user interface 1108 b forthe second network application 1170 because the user interface 1172 ofthe second network application 1170 may not support rich content input(as described herein above in relation to FIGS. 12-14). It should beunderstood that the first user interface 1602 and the second userinterface 1604 as shown in FIG. 16 are for illustrative purposes onlyand should not be regarded as limiting. For example, in someembodiments, the first user interface 1602 can be the user interface1162 of the first network application 1160. In other embodiments, thefirst user interface 1602 can be the rich content user interface 1108 aassociated with the user interface 1162 when the user interface 1162does not support rich content input (as described herein above inrelation to FIGS. 12-14). For example, in some embodiments, the seconduser interface 1604 can be the user interface 1172 of the second networkapplication 1170. In other embodiments, the second user interface 1604can be the rich content user interface 1108 b associated with the userinterface 1172 when the user interface 1172 does not support richcontent input (as described herein above in relation to FIGS. 12-14).

Referring now to operation 1512 of FIG. 15, and in some embodiments, thefirst client application receives, via the first embedded browser, asinput to the first user interface of the first network application theselection via the second user interface of the first content of theplurality of content stored in storage from the second networkapplication. For example, the first client application 1104 can receive,via the first embedded browser 1106, the selection of the first contentof the plurality of content stored in storage from the second networkapplication as input to the first user interface 1162 of the firstnetwork application 1160. Referring again to FIG. 16, the first userinterface 1602 can receive the document 1624 selected via the seconduser interface 1604 as input to the upload field 1614 of the first userinterface 1602.

Referring now to operation 1514 of FIG. 15, and in some embodiments, thefirst client application receives, via the first embedded browser,content as input to the first user interface via the first userinterface, responsive to the determination in operation 1508 that apoint in the first user interface of the first network application inwhich input from content of the plurality of content is not available asinput. For example, the first client application 1104 can receivecontent as input to the first user interface 1162 via the first userinterface 1162. Referring again to FIG. 16, the first user interface1602 can receive, for example, content as input to the fields 1610, 1612and 1614 of the first user interface 1602 via the first user interface1602.

Referring now to FIG. 17, a flow diagram of an example embodiment of amethod 1700 for sharing content from a plurality of network applicationsacross a plurality of client applications is shown. The functionalitiesof the method may be implemented using, or performed by, the componentsdetailed herein in connection with FIGS. 1-11. In brief overview, themethod includes establishing, by a first client application on a firstclient device, a first plurality of sessions with a first plurality ofnetwork applications via a first embedded browser within the firstclient application (operation 1702). The method includes storing, by thefirst client application, to a workspace service a first plurality ofcontent provided as input to each of the first plurality of networkapplications (operation 1704). The method includes establishing, by asecond client application on a second client device, a second pluralityof sessions with a second plurality of network applications via a secondembedded browser within the second client application (operation 1706).The method includes storing, by the second client application, to theworkspace service a second plurality of content provided as input toeach of the second plurality of network applications (operation 1708).The method includes receiving, by one of the first embedded browser orthe second embedded browser, a selection of content from the workspaceservice for input into an input element of a user interface displayed onthe first embedded browser and the second embedded browser for multipleuser input between users of the first client device and the secondclient device (operation 1710). The method includes displaying theselected content in the input element of the user interface displayed onthe first embedded browser and the second embedded browser (operation1712).

Referring now to operation 1702, and in some embodiments, a first clientapplication on a first client device establishes a first plurality ofsessions with a first plurality of network applications via a firstembedded browser within the first client application. For example, theclient application 1104 on the first client device 1102 can establish aplurality of sessions 1140 a-n with a plurality of network applications(1-n) 1160, 1170, 1180 via the embedded browser 1106 within the clientapplication 1104. In some embodiments, the sessions 1140 a-1140 n caninclude any type or form of a session as described herein. For example,the client application 1104 can establish a respective secure connectionto a respective server that hosts a respective one of the networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180 to provide an application session for theclient device 1102 to access the respective one of the networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180 using the client device 1102 and theembedded browser 1106.

Referring now to operation 1704, and in some embodiments, the firstclient application stores to a workspace service a first plurality ofcontent provided as input to each of the first plurality of networkapplications. For example, the client application 1104 can store, to aworkspace service, a first plurality of content provided as input toeach of the first plurality of network applications 1160, 1170, 1180. Insome embodiments, the first plurality of content can be content inputtedvia the user interfaces 1162, 1172, 1182 or the rich content userinterfaces 1108 a-n. In some embodiments, the first plurality of contentcan include one or more of the following: portions of text, anattachment, an image, a file, a document, contact information andclipboard or copied data. In some embodiments, the storage service 1190can include a workspace service 1190 executing on one or more servers.In other embodiments, the workspace service can be independent of thestorage service 1190. In some embodiments, the workspace service 1190can be remote to the client devices 1102, 1112 and communicate with theclient devices 1102, 1112 via the network 1130. In other embodiments,the workspace service can be local to one of more the client devices1102, 1112. In some embodiments, the work space service 1190 can be acloud storage including a plurality of servers in one or more locations.

Referring now to operation 1706, and in some embodiments, a secondclient application on a second client device establishes a secondplurality of sessions with a second plurality of network applicationsvia a second embedded browser within the second client application. Forexample, the client application 1114 on the second client device 1112can establish a plurality of sessions 1150 a-n with the plurality ofnetwork applications (1-n) 1160, 1170, 1180 via the embedded browser1116 within the client application 1114. In some embodiments, thesessions 1150 a-1150 n can include any type or form of a session asdescribed herein. For example, the client application 1114 can establisha respective secure connection to a respective server that hosts arespective one of the network applications 1160, 1170, 1180 to providean application session for the client device 1112 to access therespective one of the network applications 1160, 1170, 1180 using theclient device 1112 and the embedded browser 1116.

In some embodiments, at least one or more of the first plurality ofnetwork applications are executed on one or more servers operated bydifferent entities than at least one or more of the second plurality ofnetwork applications. For example, the network application 1160 can beexecuted on one or more servers operated by a first entity and thenetwork application 1170 can be executed on one more servers operated bya second entity that is different the first entity. It should beunderstood that the embodiments as described in relation to FIGS. 11 and17 are for illustrative purposes only and should not be regarded aslimiting in any way. For example, while in the embodiments of operations1702 and 1706, the first plurality of network applications and thesecond plurality of network applications can include networkapplications 1-n (e.g., 1160, 1170, 1180), in some other embodiments,the first plurality of network applications can include any two or moreof the network applications (1-n), the second plurality of networkapplications can include any two or more of the network applications(1-n), and the first plurality of network applications can include thesame, different, more or less of network applications than the secondplurality of network applications.

Referring now to operation 1708, and in some embodiments, the secondclient application stores to a workspace service a second plurality ofcontent provided as input to each of the second plurality of networkapplications. For example, the client application 1114 can store, to aworkspace service (e.g., storage service 1190), a second plurality ofcontent provided as input to each of the plurality of networkapplications 1160, 1170, 1180. In some embodiments, the second pluralityof content can be content inputted via the user interfaces 1162, 1172,1182 or the rich content user interfaces 1118 a-n. In some embodiments,the second plurality of content can include one or more of thefollowing: portions of text, an attachment, an image, a file, adocument, contact information, and clipboard or copied data.

Referring now to operation 1710, and in some embodiments, one of thefirst embedded browser or the second embedded browser receives aselection of content from the workspace service for input into an inputelement of a user interface. The user interface is displayed on thefirst embedded browser and the second embedded browser for multiple userinput between users of the first client device and the second clientdevice. For example, the first client application 1104 or the secondclient application 1114 can receive, via the first embedded browser 1106or the second embedded browser 1116 respectively, a selection of contentfrom the workspace service (e.g., the storage service 1190) for inputinto an input element of a user interface (e.g., user interface 1162,1172, 1182, 1108, or 1118). The user interface displayed in both thefirst embedded browser and the second embedded browser can allowmultiple user input between users of the first client device and thesecond client device.

Referring now to FIG. 18, a block diagram of an example embodiment of asystem 1800 for sharing content from a plurality of network applicationsacross a plurality of client applications is shown. As shown in FIG. 18,a first embedded browser 1802 of a first client device and a secondembedded browser 1804 of a second client device communicates via thenetwork 1130. Each embedded browser 1802, 1804 displays a user interface1806. For example, the first embedded browser 1802 can be the embeddedbrowser 1106 of the client device 1102, the second embedded browser 1804can the embedded browser 1116 of the client device 1104, and userinterface 1806 can be one of the user interfaces 1162, 1172, 1182, 1108a, b, n, or 1118 a, b, n of FIG. 11. As shown in FIG. 18, the userinterface 1806 can include a name field 1808, a date field 1810, and adescription of results field 1812, each configured to accept input. Insome embodiments, for example, a user can select a content 1814 among aplurality of content stored in the workspace (e.g., storage service1190) for input to the field 1812 in the user interface 1806. Responsiveto the selection, the first embedded browser 1802 and/or the secondembedded browser 1804, for example, can receive the content 1814 fromthe workspace for input into an input element (e.g., field 1812) of theuser interface 1806 displayed on the first embedded browser 1802 and thesecond embedded browser 1804 for multiple user input between users ofthe first client device (e.g., 1102) and the second client device (e.g.,1112).

Referring now to operation 1712, and in some embodiments, the firstembedded browser and the second embedded browser can display theselected content in the input element of the user interface displayed onthe first embedded browser and the second embedded browser. Referringagain to FIG. 18, for example, in the user interface 1806 displayed inthe first embedded browser 1802 and the second embedded browser 1804,the selected content 1814 is displayed in the field 1812. In thisexample, the users of the first client device and the second clientdevice can both access the content 1814 and collaborate with each other.While the example in FIG. 18 shows the sharing of content between twoclient devices, it should be understood that systems and methods of thepresent disclosure enable more than two client devices to share contentand more than two users to collaborate with each other.

In some embodiments, the first client application can communicate aninvite via the second client application for a second user of the secondclient device to collaborate with a first user of the first clientdevice. The invite can be an invitation to collaborate on an inputelement of the user interface of a network application of the pluralityof network applications displayed in the first embedded browser and thesecond embedded browser. Referring to FIG. 18, for example, the firstclient application 1106 of the first client device 1102 can communicatean invite via the second client application 1116 for a second user ofthe second client device 1102 to collaborate with a first user of thefirst client device 1102. In the example of FIG. 18, the invite can bean invitation to collaborate on the input field 1812 of the userinterface 1806 displayed in both the first embedded browser 1802 and thesecond embedded browser 1804. In some embodiments, the second clientapplication can provide, responsive to acceptance of the invite from thefirst client application, the user interface for the second user toenter input into the input element of the user interface of the networkapplication displayed in the first embedded browser and the secondembedded browser. Referring to FIG. 18, for example, the second clientapplication 1114 can provide the user interface 1806 for the second userto enter input into the input field 1812 of the user interface 1806which is displayed in both the first embedded browser and the secondembedded browser. The user of first client device 1102 and the user ofthe second client device 1104 can work together to input or edit thecontent in the field 1812.

It should be understood that the systems described above may providemultiple ones of any or each of those components and these componentsmay be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments,on multiple machines in a distributed system. The systems and methodsdescribed above may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article ofmanufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to producesoftware, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition,the systems and methods described above may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in oneor more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memorydevices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g.,integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA),Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronicdevices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM,USB Flash memory, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture maybe accessible from a file server providing access to thecomputer-readable programs via a network transmission line, wirelesstransmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves,infrared signals, etc. The article of manufacture may be a flash memorycard or a magnetic tape. The article of manufacture includes hardwarelogic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computerreadable medium that is executed by a processor. In general, thecomputer-readable programs may be implemented in any programminglanguage, such as LISP, PERL, C, C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte codelanguage such as JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in oneor more articles of manufacture as object code.

While various embodiments of the methods and systems have beendescribed, these embodiments are illustrative and in no way limit thescope of the described methods or systems. Those having skill in therelevant art can effect changes to form and details of the describedmethods and systems without departing from the broadest scope of thedescribed methods and systems. Thus, the scope of the methods andsystems described herein should not be limited by any of theillustrative embodiments and should be defined in accordance with theaccompanying claims and their equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: determining, by the client device, apoint in a first user interface of an application in which content fromanother application is useable as input; providing, by the client deviceresponsive to the determination, a second user interface to enableselection of the content from the another application; identifying, bythe client device via the second user interface, a selection of thecontent of the another application; and providing, by the client device,the content as input at the point in the first user interface of theapplication responsive to the identification of the selection.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the client device,content for each of a plurality of different applications as beinguseable as input at the point, the plurality of applications includingthe application and the another application.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the identifying, by the client device, content being based atleast on one of a type of content or a type of input.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising storing, by the client device, content fromthe plurality of different applications, the stored content beingaccessible to each of the plurality of different applications.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising determining that the point in thefirst user interface comprises an input accepting a type of content thatis stored in a storage from the another application.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising displaying, by a browser embedded within aclient application, the second user interface as an overlay to the firstuser interface.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the anotherapplication is hosted on a remote computing device by an entitydifferent than the entity associated with the client device.
 8. A systemcomprising: a client device in communication via one or more networkswith a plurality of applications hosted on one or more remote computingdevices, and configured to: determine a point in a first user interfaceof an application in which content from another application is useableas input; provide, responsive to the determination, a second userinterface to enable selection of the content from the anotherapplication; identify, via the second user interface, a selection of thecontent of the another application; and provide the content as input atthe point in the first user interface of the application responsive tothe identification of the selection.
 9. The system of claim 8, whereinthe client device is further configured to identify content for each ofa plurality of different applications as being useable as input at thepoint, the plurality of applications including the application and theanother application.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the clientdevice is further configured to identify content being based at least onone of a type of content or a type of input.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the client device is further configured to store content fromthe plurality of different applications, the stored content beingaccessible to each of the plurality of different applications.
 12. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the client device is further configured todetermine that the point in the first user interface comprises an inputaccepting a type of content that is stored in a storage from the anotherapplication.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein a browser embeddedwithin a client application of the client device is configured todisplay the second user interface as an overlay to the first userinterface.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the another application ishosted on a remote computing device by an entity different than theentity associated with one of the client device or the application. 15.A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructionsfor causing one or more processors to: determine a point in a first userinterface of an application in which content from another application isuseable as input; provide, responsive to the determination, a seconduser interface to enable selection of the content from the anotherapplication; identify, via the second user interface, a selection of thecontent of the another application; and provide the content as input atthe point in the first user interface of the application responsive tothe identification of the selection.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 15, wherein the program instructions furthercause the one or more processors to content for each of a plurality ofdifferent applications as being useable as input at the point, theplurality of applications including the application and the anotherapplication.
 17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim16, wherein the program instructions further cause the one or moreprocessors to store content from the plurality of differentapplications, the stored content being accessible to each of theplurality of different application.
 18. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 16, wherein the program instructions furthercause the one or more processors to identify content being based atleast on one of a type of content or a type of input.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the programinstructions further cause the one or more processors to determine thatthe point in the first user interface comprises an input accepting atype of content that is stored in a storage from the anotherapplication.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim15, wherein a browser embedded within a client application is configuredto display the second user interface as an overlay to the first userinterface.